By Elizabeth Howcroft
LONDON (Reuters) – Santander ( BME: ) will ban real-time payments to cryptocurrency platforms next year as part of measures to protect customers from fraud, the bank said in a statement on Friday.
Without specifying a date, the bank said it will introduce a ban on all real-time payments for cryptocurrency transfers made over the phone and branch payments such as online and mobile banking.
From the 15th of this month, the bank will join other UK retail banks in restricting customer transactions to cryptocurrency exchanges. Customers face limits of £1,000 ($1,123) per transaction and a total of £3,000 over 30-day periods. Customers can still get paid from cryptocurrency platforms.
Santander has reported a large increase in the number of UK customers falling victim to cryptocurrency fraud in recent months, the bank said.
“We aim to further protect customers by blocking all speeding fees we have detected for cryptocurrency transfers from Santander accounts – this will be implemented throughout 2023.”
Santander said it will continue to block all transfers to Binance, a policy introduced in 2021 after a warning from the British financial regulator about the platform.
Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(by Elizabeth Howcroft)
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