Citing massive consumer losses to crypto scams, the bank also applied a £5,000 maximum every 30 days on digital assets purchases, as signs of a broader U.K. crypto crackdown loom.
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Consumer-focused U.K. bank NatWest has announced that it will sharply limit the ability of its 19 million customers to buy cryptocurrencies from exchanges.
Citing £329 million ($400 million) lost to crypto scams by U.K. consumers in 2022, the bank said on March 14 that it will limit customers to £1,000 ($1,215) per day and £5,000 over 30 days.
The daily and monthly limit "is being implemented to help protect customers losing life changing sums of money," the bank said in a release. It added:
"Men over 35 are most at risk due to them being more willing to take on risky investments. The cost-of-living crisis is also having an impact with promises of high returns used by criminals to entice investors."
The caps apply not just to personal accounts but to business and commercial client accounts as well.
Beyond the payments cap, the bank advised customers to avoid sending funds to hosted wallets, or to share wallets' password with anyone.
"You should always have sole control of your cryptocurrency wallet and nobody else should have access," said Stuart Skinner, NatWest's head of fraud protection. "We have seen an increase in the number of scams using cryptocurrency exchanges and we are acting to protect our customers."
The bank also highlighted giveaway scams purported to be by well-known companies and celebrities.
U.K. Crackdown Coming?
The move comes on the heels of the collapse of three of the U.S. banks with the strongest connections to the crypto industry: Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. The latter two were shuttered by regulators over the weekend.
One former HSBC executive predicted that NatWest won't be alone, the FInancial Times reported. That person said:
"This looks like the start of a coordinated crackdown on crypto, coming from the U.K. banking sector. We've already seen this strategy take shape in the United States."
There have been growing signs that a U.K. crypto crackdown is coming.
Last October, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) banned the sale of crypto options and futures, saying the combination of high volatility and the difficulty in reliably valuing cryptoassets "places retail consumers at a high risk of suffering losses from trading crypto derivatives."
Then in January, it revealed that of the 300 crypto firms that applied to register in the U.K. in the past three years, just 41 — 14% — were approved.
And last week, the FCA began a crackdown on Bitcoin ATMs, noting that while they aren't technically illegal, none have registered with the FCA as required.
