By Lawrence White Elizabeth Howcroft
LONDONReuters) – Nationwide Building Society in the UK has announced that it has curbed customers’ ability to buy cryptocurrencies. Thursday.
The lender said that it won’t permit payments to crypto-exchanges using credit cards, and will limit adult current accounts at 5,000 pounds ($5,995) per day.
The building society stated that this was due to regulatory worries about the potential risks related to investing in digital currencies.
Cryptocurrency valuations increased in 2020 and 2021, but then plummeted sharply last year due to rising interest rates which caused investors to no longer hold onto riskier possessions. The industry has been subject to multiple crypto crashes, including the FTX exchange. This has led to calls for regulation.
The move by Nationwide is part of a broader attempt by the financial industry to reduce customer exposure to the unstable asset class. This follows similar steps taken by other British banks.
The UK’s Nationwide Building Society has implemented restrictions on the purchase of cryptocurrencies by its customers, following similar moves by other banks in the country.
In November of last year, Santander had placed limits on how much customers could transfer to cryptocurrency trading platforms, and had announced that it would soon ban UK customers from sending real-time payments directly to these exchanges. Natwest Group followed suit in 2021, introducing further restrictions.
According to Nationwide’s website, the bank will continue to limit payments to the Binance crypto exchange, citing “similar action from other providers, media coverage and regulatory uncertainty”.
The U.S. Department of Justice is currently investigating Binance for potential money laundering or sanctions violations, according to previous reports from Reuters. Binance has stated it often works with regulatory agencies to address any questions they may have.