British firms NatWest and Paysafe have imposed restrictions on customers’ transactions related to digital assets, according to the Financial Times.
One of the country’s largest commercial banks, NatWest, has introduced a daily limit of £1,000 and a monthly limit of £5,000 on payments to cryptocurrency exchanges. The bank will also ban customers from purchasing digital assets with credit cards.
Earlier, Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals in pounds sterling for new users. Platform representatives noted that the measures are related to Paysafe’s stance and affect fewer than 1% of customers.
According to the FT, the payments company believes that ‘the regulatory framework governing digital assets in the UK is too complex,’ and all decisions were taken with ‘great caution’.
“This appears to be the start of a coordinated crackdown on cryptocurrencies by the UK banking sector. We have already seen how this strategy takes shape in the United States,” said one former HSBC employee in an interview with the publication.
Earlier in March, Nationwide Building Society and HSBC also introduced restrictions on cryptocurrency purchases for retail customers.