Starting November 15th, Santander UK customers can transfer up to £1,000 per transaction to crypto exchanges.
Santander UK, a British bank owned by the Spanish Santander Group, is reportedly planning to block its customers from making payments to crypto exchanges.
According to a Reuters report shared on November 4th, customers will be prohibited to make payments using online and mobile banking, as well as in-branch payments.
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Santander UK spokesperson noted that by taking such drastic measures, the company aims to protect its customers from scams.
Keeping our customers safe from cryptocurrency scams is a top priority. We intend to further protect customers by blocking all faster payments we identify to cryptocurrency exchanges from Santander accounts – this will be implemented during the course of 2023.
The new measures will start taking effect on November 15th, when customers will be limited to the amount of money they transfer to crypto exchanges. UK customers can transfer up to £1,000 (around $1,145) per transaction from mobile and online banking accounts. Moreover, per 30-day period customers can make transactions worth £3,000 (around $3434).
In its announcement, Santander noted that customers can still receive payments from cryptocurrency exchanges to their accounts. However, Santander emphasized that in the future, there will be more “changes to limit or prevent payments to crypto exchanges in the future.”
According to Santander, the company has recently recorded an increasing number of UK customers becoming victims of crypto scams.
Santander highlighted that The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has previously warned customers about investing in crypto as it is unlikely that their assets will be protected by the Financial Ombudsman Service and Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
The bank concluded its announcement by stating that it will continue to block any transfers made to the crypto exchange Binance. It is worth noting that Santander imposed regulations against Binance back in 2021 after Britain’s financial regulator warned the bank about the crypto exchange.
In other news, on September 22nd, the United Kingdom’s government introduced the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill allowing law enforcement to obligate various businesses to transfer information related to possible money laundering, fraud, or terrorism financing schemes.
