British bank Halifax suffers mass exodus of customers with emergence of staff pronoun badges

Dozens of Halifax customers are closing their accounts with the bank after a staff member told them to leave if they don’t like their new pronoun policy.

The bank announced on social media earlier this week that it would allow staff to display their preferred pronouns on their name badges. A post that read ‘pronouns matter’ and the hashtag ‘ItsAPeopleThing’ showed a photo of a female staff member’s name badge which featured ‘she/her/hers’ in brackets. But more than 150 social media users have since said they are boycotting the former building society after being lectured about inclusivity.

Some have cut up their credit cards while others are lodging complaints about Halifax’s social media manager who, when customers accused the bank of ‘virtue-signaling’, told them: ‘If you disagree with our values, you’re welcome to close your account.’

One user said: ‘Just closed my Halifax account after 19 years with them. Another said: ‘My wife and I have followed this advice, partly due to Halifax’s current virtue signaling but mostly the eagerness of AndyM to lose customers.’

Speaking today, PR expert Martin Townsend said Halifax’s policy is what he described as a ‘Ratner moment’ and ‘astonishing’.

“It’s astonishing that they do something to make themselves look right on and virtue signalling – and they end up looking like the most old-fashioned bullies, telling them: “If you don’t like it you’re welcome to leave”.

‘It’s extraordinary. Who treats their customers like that? I’ve never heard of a company inviting their customers to go.  It’s so typical of debate these days: “If you don’t like it, off you go”. How is that inclusive? There are big questions about Halifax today and who came up with it’.

‘Telling customers they should go elsewhere if they don’t share their beliefs is an incredible statement for a business to make.’

On its website, Halifax says any customers they deem to be ‘transphobic’ could have their accounts closed.

Underneath a page titled ‘what we stand for’ is written: ‘We stand against discrimination and inappropriate behaviour in all forms, whether racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic or ableist, regardless of whether this happens in our branches, offices, over the phone or online on our social media channels.

‘Such action may include account closure or contacting the police if necessary.’

With over 10,000 negative comments and reactions, there was clear evidence that its defiant attitude to those who expressed their objections was backfiring.

Financial commentator Matthew Lynn warned: ‘Companies don’t need to aggressively take positions on what are still quite divisive social issues. It probably didn’t come from the CEO – it comes from a bunch of millennial 20-somethings running the Twitter feed.

‘To tell customers that they should go and close down their accounts and go to a different bank because they have a slightly different view on this is way too aggressive.’

One man said a customer services assistant was ‘deliberately obstructive’ after he told her why he wanted to close his account.

He added that the assistant ‘doubled down and said they’re a business of inclusiveness and equality and then closed the chat but not my account’.

But another customer said: ‘To be fair, I’ve just closed my account and the staff were so apologetic. Clearly not all the Halifax staff agree with this extremist ideology.’