National Australia Bank is the latest bank to announce prohibitions on specific cryptocurrency exchanges, citing the significant danger of scams.Another major Australian bank has announced that it will restrict certain cryptocurrency platforms, citing high levels of scam risk in the business.
Recently, National Australia Bank (NAB) unveiled a series of additional steps to safeguard clients from fraud as part of its “bank-wide scam strategy.”Along with stopping millions of payments between March and July 2023, NAB will also implement blocks on “some cryptocurrency platforms” to help protect clients from scams. The NAB did not name the bitcoin exchanges that are expected to suffer bank blocks. Chris Sheehan, NAB executive for group investigations and fraud, only stated that the new blocks will affect “high-risk” sites where “scams are more prevalent.”
According to Sheehan:
“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.”
According to local media, Sheehan intimated that NAB’s crypto bans could have an impact on the Binance crypto exchange. “Our approach is going to be consistent with the rest of the industry,” the CEO reportedly stated. Other major Australian banks, including Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank, have reportedly restricted payments to Binance in recent months.
In the announcement, NAB reiterated the rising narrative by local banks, claiming that approximately 50% of scam money reported in Australia are tied to cryptocurrency.
“More broadly, cryptocurrency scams are one of the fastest-growing security threats, with Australians losing more than $221 million to them last year,” NBA’s statement reads. The authority also argued that 40% of Australians are “extremely willing” for payments to be slower if they were “better protected from scammers.”