Commonwealth Bank has implemented additional measures aimed at safeguarding customers from potential scam risks associated with specific payments made to cryptocurrency exchanges.
As part of these measures, Commonwealth Bank will now decline or temporarily hold certain payments made to cryptocurrency exchanges, with a hold period of 24 hours.
Furthermore, in the following months, the bank plans to introduce a $10,000 limit per calendar month for customer payments identified as being made to cryptocurrency exchanges for purchasing cryptocurrencies.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia temporarily suspends selected cryptocurrency payments
James Roberts, General Manager of Group Fraud Management Services at Commonwealth Bank, stated that the growing interest in cryptocurrencies among consumers has resulted in a global surge in scams. Scammers often pose as legitimate investment opportunities or direct funds to cryptocurrency exchanges.
To address this issue and minimize customer losses, the bank is implementing measures such as 24-hour holds, payment declines, and outbound payment limits to cryptocurrency exchanges. These measures will be continuously monitored and reviewed for their effectiveness in combating scams.
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The recent decision by the CBA to pause certain crypto payments marks a significant shift for the bank. Previously, in November 2021, CBA had announced plans to enable cryptocurrency trading on its banking app, CommBank, becoming the first Australian bank to offer such services.
The initiative aimed to support ten cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC). However, the launch of the crypto-trading service faced regulatory challenges, preventing the implementation of a pilot program.
CBA is not the only major Australian financial institution taking measures to restrict customer transactions with cryptocurrency exchanges. In a similar move, Westpac, another major Australian financial giant, recently implemented measures to safeguard its users from potential scams by disallowing payments to the well-known cryptocurrency trading platform Binance.
