National Australia Bank is the latest financial institution to announce bans on certain crypto exchanges, citing the high risk of fraud.
Another significant Australian bank has said that it will prohibit specific cryptocurrency platforms due to the industry’s high risk of scams.
As part of its “bank-wide scam strategy,” National Australia Bank (NAB) announced a number of new measures against fraud on July 17.
Along with halting millions of payments between March and July 2023, NAB will additionally put in blocks on “some cryptocurrency platforms” to help protect clients from scams.
The names of the bitcoin exchanges that the bank is anticipated to ban were not provided by NAB. Chris Sheehan, group investigations and fraud executive for NAB, only mentioned that the new blocks will affect “high-risk” sites where “scams are more prevalent.”
As Sheehan put it:
“These scammers are part of organized, transnational crime groups. Increasingly, we’re seeing them use cryptocurrency platforms to send stolen funds quickly and often overseas.”
Local news sources claim Sheehan made an indication that the cryptocurrency exchange Binance would be impacted by NAB’s crypto blocks. The CEO reportedly stated, “Our strategy will be consistent with the rest of the industry.”
Other significant Australian banks, such as Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank, are said to have blocked payments to Binance over the past few months.
In the statement, NAB repeated the growing claim made by regional banks that almost 50% of scam funds reported in Australia are connected to cryptocurrencies.
“More broadly, cryptocurrency scams are one of the fastest-growing security threats, with Australians losing more than $221 million to them last year,” with regard to the NBA’s statement. Furthermore, the authority said that 40% of Australians would be “extremely willing” to accept slower payments in exchange for being “better protected from scammers.”