More than 5M Britons Banned from Buying Crypto By Their Bank
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More than 5M Britons Banned from Buying Crypto By Their Bank

TSB's decision is linked to "excessively high" fraud rates.

More than 5M Britons Banned from Buying Crypto By Their Bank

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More than five million Britons are going to be banned from buying cryptocurrencies by one of the country’s biggest banks.

TSB’s clampdown, reported by The Telegraph, is said to be linked to “excessively high” fraud rates.

It fears that financial scammers are duping customers and using exchanges to transfer their victims’ cash into digital assets that cannot be traced.

According to TSB, one in eight payments to these platforms ended up with fraudsters — compared with one in 5,500 non-crypto transactions.

Growing Concerns 

TSB isn’t alone in taking such action — other British institutions including the online-only banks Monzo and Starling have introduced temporary suspensions too.

Starling stressed that it plans to reverse this measure “as we roll out additional checks specifically for payments to crypto exchanges.”

On Friday, new figures from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority suggested that 2.3 million people now own cryptocurrencies — 400,000 more than last year.

The typical investment now stands at approximately £300, with 53% stating that they have had a positive experience so far.

All of this means that the latest clampdown by banks could affect a greater number of Britons attempting to enter this space.

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