Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has announced that it will be implementing restrictions on payments to cryptocurrency exchanges in order to protect customers from scams. The Australian bank stated on Thursday that it will be declining certain payments to crypto exchanges or holding them for a period of 24 hours, a time period which it said could vary. CBA also plans to introduce a limit of payments to crypto exchanges of 10,000 Australian dollars ($6,700) per calendar month in the coming months.
James Roberts, Commonwealth’s general manager of fraud management, said, “With the incidences of scams increasing and in many cases customers suffering significant losses from being scammed, the introduction of 24-hour holds, declines, and limits on outbound payments to cryptocurrency exchanges will help reduce both the number of scams and the amount of money lost by customers.”
CBA is following in the footsteps of fellow Australian bank Westpac, which last month banned transfers to the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance along with certain other platforms. A number of U.K. banks have also imposed limits on payments to exchanges.