Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) announced on Thursday a range of new anti-scam measures, including blocking some payments to certain cryptocurrency exchanges and introducing a monthly limit of A$10,000 ($6,666) for crypto payments. The bank declined to name the exchanges involved.
James Roberts, CBA General Manager of Group Fraud Management Services, stated: “Customers who make payments to crypto-currency exchanges are currently facing a significantly higher risk of potentially being scammed.”
Westpac, another of Australia’s “big four” banks, blocked some cryptocurrency payments last month in order to reduce scam losses. They also did not identify the exchanges involved.
These measures follow Binance Australia’s announcement that customers would lose access to Australian dollar deposits and withdrawals due to Cuscal cutting access. As a result, bitcoin on the Australian platform traded at a 20% discount to rival exchanges.
This week, U.S. regulators sued the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, alleging Binance inflated trading volumes and diverted customer funds, among other claims.
By Lewis Jackson, Editing by Jamie Freed.
