British banks HSBC Holdings and Nationwide Building Society are immediately banning the purchase of crypto with credit cards for retail customers. With this, the banks join a growing list of financial institutions in the United Kingdom, which does not present itself as a crypto-friendly jurisdiction.
Step back
According to a March 2 Bloomberg report is the “step back” in response to warnings from UK regulators surrounding the crypto industry scandals. With “the scandals” they obviously mean the implosion of Terra and the collapse of FTX in 2022.
Nationwide chooses to set daily limits of 5,000 British pounds (approximately 5,700 euros) on debit card purchases, while credit cards will no longer allow crypto purchases. For many Brits that will be a hard blow.
HSBC customers could no longer buy crypto with their credit cards last month. “This is because of the potential risk to customers,” HSBC wrote in an email unearthed by Bloomberg. In both cases, the banks pointed to the warnings issued by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) about the risks of cryptocurrencies.
Not the only two
Incidentally, HSBC and Nationwide are not the only two banks to place restrictions on crypto in the United Kingdom. Santander, Natwest Group and Lloyds Banking Group also participate in the restrictions. In addition, HSBC already banned credit card payments to Binance in August 2021 because they were concerned about the legal status of the exchange platform in Great Britain.
The authorities of the United Kingdom are currently clapping and cracking down on crypto companies. In February, the FCA proposed another set of new rules that could send crypto company executives to jail for up to two years if they fail to meet certain conditions.
These conditions mainly concern advertising and promotion, which the FCA now wants to limit. Furthermore, the United Kingdom’s financial watchdog stated that all providers of crypto exchange services must register and comply with money laundering regulations.
