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By Sinead Cruise and Iain Withers
LONDON (Reuters) - NatWest's departing CEO Alison Rose until recently told colleagues she had weathered more than her fair share of crises, steering the state-backed lender through the COVID-19 pandemic and market fallout from war in Europe and chaos in Westminster.
But ultimately it was committing the cardinal sin of breaching the confidence of a client, former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, that cost her her job.
NatWest lifer Rose climbed up the ranks over more than three decades from graduate trainee to boardroom, becoming the first woman to run one of Britain's major banks.
Widely lauded for her work promoting female entrepreneurship and action by the industry on climate change, she received a damehood for services to banking and was a close adviser to the British government.
But over the past 10 days, a string of damaging revelations about the decision by NatWest's private bank Coutts to close Farage's accounts partly because his views did not "align" with the bank's drew widespread condemnation, including from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who previously leaned on her advice.
"Character reputations are pretty volatile," said Rupert Younger, founder of Oxford University's Centre for Corporate Reputation. "You can be a hero one day, a zero the next, as Alison Rose has found out."
The role assumed by Rose as agent for change in a sector historically driven by greed was not enough to save her, just days before Britain's top financial regulator imposes strict new rules demanding paramount protections for consumers.
Despite initially securing the backing of her board, led by veteran industry figurehead and former regulator Howard Davies, Rose's resignation was announced early on Wednesday.
Davies lamented the "sad moment" while Rose paid tribute to colleagues who had helped her build solid foundations for the bank, in a statement accompanying the news.
Charlie Nunn, the CEO at rival lender Lloyds Banking Group described Rose as "a role model" in financial services, in a media call after the bank's first half figures on Wednesday.
Questions abound whether the sudden shake-up to leadership at Britain's biggest lender to small businesses - around 40% owned by the taxpayer - might distract from its objective of keeping credit flowing into a UK economy and mortgage market already reeling from 13 consecutive base rate hikes.
"The big problem for the UK government is not its stuck ownership of this bank, but the self-inflicted long-term economic damage of Brexit," said a former NatWest employee, who declined to be named.