TSB Banking Group Plc., the United Kingdom-based financial institution, has announced that it will soon ban its over 5.4 million customers from buying Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies.
It has been reported that the bank’s imminent crypto ban is due to alleged cases of fraud associated with cryptocurrency transactions. The bank has reportedly received a plethora of complaints from customers about crypto-related fraud cases.
However, the UK bank says about 12.5% of payments to crypto exchange platforms involve transactions as against one in 5,500 for non-virtual currency-related transfers.
The report said that the major crypto exchange Binance has been linked to the rising number of crypto fraud complaints lodged by the bank’s customers. Two-thirds of suspected cases were linked to Binance, with 849 instances occurring between mid-March and mid-April. As previously reported, UK bank NatWest issued a crypto scam alert back in May after reportedly receiving a record number of complaints in Q1.
Earlier in April, the bank had served an anti-crypto notice to clients and customers to stay away from cryptocurrencies. Apart from Binance, TSB Bank identified the United States exchange service Kraken as another platform linked to a significant number of suspected fraud cases. The UK bank also criticized crypto exchanges for not responding to fraud-related customer complaints.
Likewise, a spokesperson for TSB Bank remarked that it was the bank’s obligation to protect customers from platforms with “excessively high fraud rates.” TSB Bank joins a growing list of UK financial institutions that have barred customers from crypto.
Apart from NatWest, other British banks such as Barclays and Starling have moved to ban customers from depositing cash in cryptocurrency trading platforms.
Thus, earlier in June, Starling announced that it would resume allowing customers to deposit cash in crypto exchanges from today.
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Business Hub