TL;DR Breakdown
- United Kingdom’s most prominent bank lifts ban on payments.
- These payments were all related to crypto exchanges.
- According to the bank, the ban was for security purposes, as they suspected criminal activity.
Starling Bank had won the prize for the most prominent and best bank in the entire United Kingdom for the year 2018. It is a fact that there are plenty of customers using this bank. The recent surge in the popularity of cryptocurrencies and also, the gaining adoption rate of crypto had reached the cognizance of banks around the world. Starling Bank is also one of these banks.
Why crypto payment ban by Starling Bank?
Various speculations regarding the reason for the ban on crypto payments made to exchanges have been made. The customers of Starling Bank who invest in cryptocurrencies had been getting frustrated with the bank’s treatment of them. To everyone’s shock, in an electronic mail, the reason for the ban was released by the bank itself. The reason was:
“High levels of suspected financial crime with payments to some cryptocurrency exchanges.
Alexandra Frean, the chief corporate affairs officer at Starling
Ban to be lifted soon
“The suspension will lift on 23 June following the introduction of an enhanced payment review process. The block only affects outbound payments, inbound payments in GBP are unaffected,”
Alexandra Frean, the chief corporate affairs officer at Starling
So, it is now clear that for a period of 3 weeks, no customer of the Starling Bank in the United Kingdom will be able to make payments to crypto exchanges. The customers won’t be able to use their accounts for transactions in crypto exchanges until the bank has fully equipped itself with complete security. This is being done so as to ensure that no Starling Bank customer engages in any criminal activity using crypto exchanges.
Other than Starling Bank, some prominent US-based banks have tried to achieve similar tactics. Although only rumors for these banks exist, it is a high possibility that these banks are seeking to restrict crypto activities.
These banks include Barclays and also, Monzo bank, two of the most highly-esteemed banks in the United Kingdom. However, the ban on such payments has been seen to be only temporary by Starling and the users who want to trade in crypto can expect to be able to make their payments within three weeks. It is suggested that they use other banks or services that might support sending fiat to exchanges like Coinbase and Binance.
