Santander Blocks Binance Payments for UK Customers

Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has blocked payments to crypto exchange Binance for U.K. customers, following several other U.K. banks in blacklisting the exchange.

In June, NatWest put a limit on how much money customers could send to exchanges, including Binance. On Monday, Barclays blocked customers from making payments to Binance. On Tuesday, Nationwide Building Society announced that it was assessing its policies on cryptocurrency transactions.

Each of these changes have come in the wake of the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announcing that Binance shouldn’t be operating in the U.K.

“In recent months we have seen a large increase in U.K. customers becoming the victims of cryptocurrency fraud,” a spokesperson for Santander’s U.K. arm told CoinDesk. “Keeping our customers safe is a top priority, so we have decided to prevent payments to Binance following the FCA’s warning to consumers.”

Also on Thursday, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (PFSA) warned that consumers should be cautious when using Binance’s services because the exchange isn’t regulated by the PFSA.