NatWest Bank Is Limiting Daily Crypto Transfers

NatWest – a retail and commercial bank – is limiting how much money its customers can transfer to digital currency exchanges as a means of preventing fraud.

NatWest Is Halting Major Crypto Activity

Customers of NatWest will no longer be able to transfer more than 1,000 pounds to crypto exchanges. They also cannot exceed 5,000 pounds per month. The bank put out a statement claiming there are too many “crypto criminals” out there, and it doesn’t want its customers taking too many chances with a space that’s largely unregulated and open to bad behavior.

Stuart Skinner – head of fraud protection at NatWest – says the bank, in recent years, has witnessed a rising number of crypto scams. Thus far, customers have lost close to 330 million pounds. In an interview, he offered tips and tricks to help financial players avoid getting defrauded:

You should always have sole control of your cryptocurrency wallet, and nobody else should have access. If you didn’t set the wallet up yourself or can’t access the money, then this is likely to be a scam.

This is not the first time NatWest has taken such action against crypto or imposed limitations. Two years ago in June of 2021, the bank introduced daily caps on crypt transfers, though limits largely depended on the customers’ individual circumstances, meaning things would likely be different for each person.

Now, the bank is just ensuring that the rules are the same across the board for all customers, no matter how big their accounts are or how much money they have.

Benoit Marzouk – chief executive at Bitcoin Point, a crypto trading app registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – said the measures being taken by the bank are too restrictive, and he doesn’t believe they’ll do anything when it comes to preventing fraud. He commented:

Banks should instead focus on educating their users about the most common scams clients are falling victim to, typically the ‘recovery of your funds’ or demanding that you pay a withdrawal fee prior to the ‘release of funds.’

The UK Really Wants to Regulate Crypto

The announcement from NatWest comes as crypto exchange Binance is stating that its customers can no longer engage in deposits or withdrawals centered on the pound sterling. Binance presently has close to 130 million customers, though it has not given details regarding how many customers this new rule is likely to affect in the coming weeks.

The U.K., where NatWest is based, has become one of the most recent countries to declare a need for crypto regulation. Higher calls for regulation came not long after the collapse of the now defunct crypto exchange FTX, which led to more than $200 billion worth of crypto being removed from the market. Its former chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried is also awaiting trial for fraud.

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