UK has created crypto banking problems
Many UK crypto companies are finding it difficult to get banking services because many banks are limiting their interaction with the sector altogether, crypto advocates said.
After the collapse of America’s Silicon Valley, Silvergate and Signature banks, American crypto customers have had to look for new banking partners. However, the US is not the only country with companies experiencing this dilemma. The UK has created a crypto banking problem since as far back as 2021.
“Many of the major UK banks have now introduced bans or restrictions and we are concerned that other banks and payment service providers (PSPs) may soon follow suit,” wrote Su Carpenter, director of operations at CryptoUK, in a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s economic secretary Andrew Griffith Monday. CryptoUK is a lobby group that advocates for digital assets.
Lisa Cameron, an MP and chair of the Crypto and Digital Assets group, said in a statement to CoinDesk that crypto businesses have been unable to open bank accounts with Santander and NatWest Group, a problem she taken up in the Storting recently.
A NatWest spokesperson said the bank does not “currently offer business banking facilities [that] buy or sell cryptocurrencies. This is a rapidly developing area in the UK and we keep our stance under constant review.”
“We make all new banking business onboarding decisions on a case-by-case basis based on the specifics of each business,” a Santander spokesperson told CoinDesk in a statement.
UK banks have been pulling away from crypto in recent years. Alison Rose, chief executive of NatWest, told the House of Commons finance committee in a hearing in February that the bank had “blocked retail and wealth clients from transferring to crypto assets due to the volatility and stability of the platform.” Rose also cited fraud as another reason at the time.
In March, NatWest began limiting customer payments to crypto exchanges to 1,000 British pounds (US$1,232) per day and 5,000 British pounds (US$6,161) over a 30-day period, to protect consumers from “cryptocriminals,” NatWest announced via e-mail.
Many other banks have chosen to limit crypto payments to exchanges to protect consumers from risk. Nationwide and HSBC both announced restrictions on crypto purchases around the same time.
Spanish bank Santander, which has branches in the UK, last year limited transactions to crypto exchanges to 1,000 British pounds per transaction, while UK bank Starling said it no longer supports buying and selling cryptocurrencies by debit card or bank transfer and never banked directly. crypto companies.
