LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) – Britain’s Nationwide Building Society has limited customers’ ability to buy cryptocurrencies, the lender informed its customers on Thursday.
Nationwide stated that payments to crypto-exchanges using credit cards have been prohibited and adult current accounts are limited to 5,000 pounds ($5,995) per day.
The Building society explained that the action was taken in response to regulatory concerns about the risk of purchasing digital currencies.
Cryptocurrency saw a surge in prices in 2020 and 2021, only to plunge afterwards as higher interest rates prompted investors to avoid riskier assets. A succession of crypto crashes, including the FTX exchange, resulted in large losses for investors, prompting calls for regulation.
As part of their measures to protect customers against scams, other UK banks have also taken similar steps. In November, Santander (SAN.MC) announced that it would soon ban UK customers from sending real-time payments directly to these exchanges and had previously limited the amount customers could transfer to cryptocurrency trading platforms.
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Natwest Group (NWG.L) introduced new regulations in 2021.
Nationwide’s website states that the bank will maintain the restriction on payments to Binance crypto exchange, citing “similar measures by other providers, media reports and uncertainties in regulation”.
The US Department of Justice is studying Binance for suspected money laundering and violations of sanctions, Reuters reported earlier. The company said it regularly works with regulatory agencies to answer any questions.
($1 = 0.8340 pounds)
Edited By Sinead Cruise And David Goodman
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