Australia's Commonwealth Bank Will Partially Restrict Payments to Crypto Exchanges

Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will apply partial restrictions to payments to cryptocurrency exchanges as a means of protecting customers from scams.

The Australian bank announced on Thursday that it will decline "certain payments" to crypto exchanges or hold them for a period of 24 hours, a time period which it said could vary.

The bank also plans to introduce a limit of payments to crypto exchanges of 10,000 Australian dollars ($6,700) per calendar month in the months ahead.

“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," James Roberts, Commonwealth's general manager of fraud management, said.

Commonwealth is following in the footsteps of fellow Australian bank Westpac which last month banned transfers to 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.

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