Nationwide Building Society to ban crypto payments, citing regulatory concerns
UK Bank to ban crypto payments
Nationwide Building Society has implemented restrictions on its customers’ ability to purchase cryptocurrencies, the British lender said in an email sent to customers on Wednesday, March 1.
Per the announcement, Nationwide will be introducing limits on card payments made to crypto exchanges from a current account, and will not allow any payments to crypto exchanges using a Nationwide credit card.
Adult Current Accounts will have a £5,000 daily limit, while FlexOne accounts will only allow for £100 in daily transfers.
Any payments to Caymans-registered Binance will be declined.
Nationwide he building society stated that the move was in response to regulatory risks with purchasing cryptocurrency, “as highlighted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)”.
Nationwide follows in the footsteps of any large-cap financial institutions operating in the UK.
Santander, HSBC, NatWest implement crypto bans
In November 2022, Banco Santander (LSE:BNC) limited payments to crypto exchanges to £1,000 per transaction with a total limit of £3,000 in any rolling 30-day period.
All real-time payments to crypto exchanges will be banned by the Spanish bank from an unspecified point in 2023, enforced by tracking transfers made between UK bank accounts and crypto exchanges on Faster Payments, the infrastructure used for electronic payments.
HSBC’s corporate media relations manager Ankit Patel told Coindesk last April that “HSBC has no appetite for direct exposure to virtual currencies and limited appetite to facilitate products or securities that derive their value from virtual currencies”.
In that same month, NatWest began refusing to serve business customers who accept payment in cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.
Morten Friis, a NatWest board member and head of its risk committee, said at the time: “We have no appetite for dealing with customers, whether taking them on as new clients or having an ongoing relationship with people, whose main business is backed by an exchange for cryptocurrencies or otherwise transacting in cryptocurrencies as their main activity.”
