Australia's largest bank is temporarily halting certain payments to crypto exchanges

Australia's largest bank is temporarily halting certain payments to crypto exchanges

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Australia's largest bank, announced a temporary decline in "certain" payments to cryptocurrency exchanges as part of newly introduced anti-fraud measures in the country.

According to an official press release, the CBA will reject or hold crypto payments for 24 hours or longer. As part of fraud risk measures, the bank will also impose a A$10,000 ($6,650) limit on exchange payments in the coming months.

CBA stops certain crypto payments

James Roberts, CBA General Manager of Group Fraud Management Services, said:

“Consumer interest in cryptocurrencies has increased and unfortunately, scammers around the world are exploiting this trend by posing as legitimate investment opportunities or diverting funds to cryptocurrency exchanges.” Customers making payments to cryptocurrency exchanges are currently at significantly higher risk of possible fraud.”

Roberts added that introducing 24-hour holds, declines and limits on payments on crypto exchanges would help reduce both the number of scams and customer loss of funds. The CBA will monitor the impact of the fraud measures and review them.

"A cross-ecosystem approach to combating fraud is needed across Australia and CBA is committed to keeping customers safe as part of a broader national alignment from government, regulators, banks and other industries. We are committed to being part of a broader solution with government, regulators, banks, telcos and other industries to keep Australians safe to ensure,” added Roberts.

A big turnaround

The CBA's move represents a major about-face for the bank, which announced in November 2021 that it would enable crypto trading for Aussies via its banking app CommBank. The CBA would be the first Australian bank to launch such services, supporting ten crypto assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).

However, a dispute with Australian financial regulators last year prevented the launch of a pilot project for the crypto trading service.

The CDA is not the only major Australian bank to ban customers from transacting with a crypto exchange. Last month, Westpac banned its users from making payments to leading crypto trading platform Binance as part of its latest fraud protection measures.

Meanwhile, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has ordered banks to report their exposure to crypto-related companies and startups.

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