Ex-Liverpool star Ryan Babel fears his Merseyside home will be lost after RBS bank account closed

Babel, 38, took to X (formerly Twitter) to share his mortgage saga, with the bank threatening to repossess his Liverpool home after he moved out of the UK and his British bank account was closed.

In a series of posts, he said: “For almost 16 years the bank @RBS_Help (Royal Bank of Scotland) has been deducting these payments from my bank…. No headaches - never missed a payment. As u might know due to my career i moved out of the city of Liverpool in 2011 to peruse the rest of my career.

He continued: “Apparently - the bank policies started to change and the RBS decided that they dont want people to hold an account with them who dont live in the country.”

Babel, who made 91 appearances for the Premier League side between 2007 and 2011, said in his posts that RBS had sent letters to his Liverpool home in which he was instructed to clear the funds in his account before it was closed by the bank. He added that he did not receive the letters as he did not live in in the city at the time, resulting in the accounts being closed while large funds remained in them.

The footballer, who has been living in Istanbul at the time the accounts were closed, was only made aware of the situation four months after they were initially closed. He had to wait until April 2024 when he could visit a branch in person to file a fund release form.

However, Babel said that when he asked during the branch visit about his RBS mortgage, he was told by staff that he would need to look into the issue online.

He added: “ Long story shorter - i end up calling and they can’t seem to find me in their system. Meanwhile my arrears keep piling up i assume and its possibly just a matter of time before the bank will take my home from me.. saying i didn’t paid [sic] my mortgage for months.

“So now i am at this point not sure how to get hold of someone in the RBS who can assist with this issue so that i can cover my arrears and continue with the payments… I mean.. we live in 2025. I dont understand how the RBS has not developed over time to have their customers properly archived in their system.”

The bank has not commented publicly on the situation. GB News reports that RBS is working and engaging with Babel to rectify his issue.