Commonwealth Bank (CBA), which is regarded as the largest bank in Australia, has stated that it shall decline or temporarily restrict payments towards cryptocurrency exchanges, citing the increasing risk of scam attacks.

After the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued the world’s largest centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and Coinbase, regulatory scrutiny seems to have spread to the Aussies just a few weeks following Westpac, another major Australian bank corporation, banning customers from trading on Binance.

CBA stated on June 8 that it shall decline or place a 24-hour hold on “certain payments to cryptocurrency exchanges” as a part of "new measures to help protect customers from scam risks associated with making certain payments to cryptocurrency exchanges.” The main motive behind doing so is the risk of scam attacks. There shall be a $10,000 Australian dollar ($6,650) per month limit on customers sending out funds towards cryptocurrency exchanges to buy crypto assets, to be introduced in the coming months.

“From today, CBA will decline or hold for 24 hours certain payments to cryptocurrency exchanges. In coming months the Bank will also introduce $10,000 limits in a calendar month where the Bank can identify the customer payments are to exchanges for cryptocurrency purchases,” the CBA said in a statement.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/commonwealth-bank-decline-limit-payments-to-high-risk-crypto-exchanges

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/06/08/australias-commonwealth-bank-will-partially-restrict-payments-to-crypto-exchanges/

https://www.reuters.com/technology/australias-largest-bank-blocks-payments-some-crypto-exchanges-2023-06-08/

https://www.commbank.com.au/articles/newsroom/2023/06/changes-on-payments-to-crytocurrency-exchanges.html