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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 Twitter earlier this week that it would allow staff to display their pronouns their name badges.
In a post that read ‘pronouns matter’ and the hashtag ‘ItsAPeopleThing’, it 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-signalling’, 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. They can stick their pronouns up their/his/her a**e’.
Another said: ‘My wife and I have followed this advice, partly due to Halifax’s current virtue signalling but mostly the eagerness of AndyM to lose customers.
‘Mortgage is being moved, credit cards have been cancelled, deposit account closed. Had been with you since the 90s. Nice work.’
Speaking today, PR expert Martin Townsend said Halifax’s policy is a ‘Ratner moment’ and ‘astonishing’.
It was a reference to Gerald Ratner, who infamously caused the value of the jewellery firm he was chief executive of to plummet after branding its products ‘total c**p’ in a speech.
The row began on Tuesday when Halifax posted on Twitter a photo of a uniform badge with the words ‘she/her/hers’ below the name Gemma and the declaration: ‘Pronouns matter’. It said the move was designed to avoid ‘accidental misgendering’
The critical tweets prompted the bank to defend its new policy by responding to the tweets. It said in one post: ‘We strive for inclusion, equality and quite simply, in doing what’s right. If you disagree with our values, you’re welcome to close your account’
Last night customer Caroline Ffiske, a former Conservative councillor, said: ‘It is incredibly rude for Halifax to say to customers if you don’t like it go away. It’s astonishing to have a bank behaving like a trans activist.’
Halifax said its pronoun move was designed to avoid ‘accidental misgendering’.
By last night close to 10,000 people had protested on social media. One woman said she had closed her Halifax credit card account over the ‘crazy’ policy.
‘I don’t want to be having conversations about gender when I go into my bank,’ said the 50-year-old psychologist from London. ‘Frankly, I’d rather they be focused on lowering interest rates.’
Another woman said she had moved her savings account to Nat West, adding: ‘I want to do my banking and not have a nonsensical, often deeply misogynistic religion pushed on me.
This customer said they had closed their account after 19 years with the bank. They said they can ‘stick their pronouns up their/his/her a***’
This angry customer who claimed to have been with Halifax since the 1990s said they were moving their mortgage, cancelling their credit cards and closing their deposit account
Other furious customers also said they were closing their accounts. One customer branded the bank ‘naive’ and said people would be ‘appalled’ at its ‘woke credentials’
‘Telling customers they should go elsewhere if they don’t share their beliefs is an incredible statement for a business to make.’
PR expert Mr Townsend said: ‘It’s a Ratner moment I would say. 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 a big questions about Halifax today and who came up with it.’
On its website, Halifax say any customers they deem to be ‘transphobic’ could have their accounts closed.
Underneath a page titled ‘what we stand for’, they say: ‘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.’
Former Doctor Who scriptwriter Gareth Roberts, a Halifax customer since 1988, told the bank: ‘I’m a homosexual man. I’m appalled by your adoption of this homophobic, woman-hating claptrap, and by your attitude to customers making perfectly reasonable objections to it.’
Company director Anders Jersby ended his Halifax car insurance policy and said he would never deal with Halifax again thanks to ‘their antics with pronouns’.
Halifax would not say how many customers had closed their accounts this week but there was clear evidence that its defiant attitude to those who expressed their objections was backfiring.
More than 150 social media users say they are boycotting the former building society after being lectured about inclusivity
On BBC Radio 4 yesterday 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.’
Several major organisations now encourage staff to state preferred gender pronouns either in emails or on badges, but Halifax is the first to suggest customers should leave if they disagree with it.
The bank has said the badge pronouns are optional for staff, but Tory MP Mark Jenkinson said the policy would put pressure on any not wishing to join in.
Halifax, which is owned by Lloyds Banking Group, did not respond to requests to comment.
When Halifax announced the move on Wednesday, customers immediately criticised them
