Dear financial services,

We are writing to you as sex workers and sex worker led organisations in support of
our members who have received unjust refusals of service from your
company. Recently it has come to our attention that members of our community
have been refused financial and banking services, or have had existing services
terminated on the grounds of occupation. This is despite these individuals being
legitimately self-employed workers or companies who are entitled to an equality of
treatment from financial establishments as their non-sex working counterparts.

Sex work, in the form of providing online content, online interactions and the
independent sale of sexual services, are legal within UK jurisdictions, whilst content
provision remains legal across the United States, Europe and much of Asia. Banks
and financial services are essential for any business to operate, pay running costs,
turn a legitimate profit and resultantly, personal economic survival. However, those
working in the adult industries are reporting experiences barring them from financial
services based solely on the grounds of their occupation. Most recently, a member
has had their Monzo account terminated, negatively impacting both their finances
and personal life. Without institutions such as yours allowing access to equitable
services and finance, the sex industry and those working within the sector are at
higher risk of further economic marginalisation; limited access to housing and
essentials, evictions, difficulties paying business overheads, damage to credit and
great personal risks. Online sex workers are unable to accept payment from online
platforms selling content or interactions without a legal bank account and
subsequently are unable to pay rents and overheads leaving them at risk of
dangerous working practices, poverty and debt.

As highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, this can also lead to exclusion from
accessing governmental aid in times of financial hardship due to a lack of confidence,
fear of further discrimination or an inability to prove income and provide sound
financial records. This exclusion from banking, and by extension the broader
economic system, feeds into the public perception of an illicit cash-only “black-
market”. In turn, further stereotyping, stigmatising and adding into the sex work-
phobic narratives and social exclusions already faced by sex workers while increasing
sex workers vulnerability to dangerous or unscrupulous intermediaries and practices.
While a bank has a legal right to refuse services to an individual without explanation
(provided it does not constitute unlawful discrimination of protected characteristics),
or on the grounds on suspicion of money laundering or fraud, sex work remains one
of the only professions to be subject to openly occupation-based refusal. In contrast,
little evidence exists on the financial or legal risk of independent or online sex
workers committing fraud or being of higher financial risk than those of equal
incomes in other industries while reports of the negative impacts of refusal are
common place within sex work.
This issue is not limited to UK sex workers. Australia has seen the exclusion of sex
industry businesses’ and individuals, despite the legality of their work, for being
“high risk”. In contrast, the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman has
warned against banks being “moral arbiters” of legal businesses in Australia. In New
Zealand, Kiwibank recently partially-reversed their decision to bar sex workers and
close accounts on the grounds of the harms and risks to sex workers from their
policy. We ask these international examples to be taken into account and our
members banking to be restored on the grounds that no illegal or suspicious banking
activity has taken place, and as large international institutions you have an obligation
to accept ethical and equitable access to your services without discrimination,
judgement or further stigmatisation.

As representatives of our members, we ask that you reconsider your refusal to allow
individuals to open and maintain accounts with your bank, we also ask that clear
anti-discrimination policies are put in place to ensure individuals are not put at risk
of further marginalisation and discrimination due to occupation. The move to block
or blacklist individuals from fair access to the financial system from one industry can
be seen as an act of institutional violence and economic discrimination which we
hope is not present within this institution.

Signed: