CBA Bank Bans Cryptocurrency Purchases with Credit Cards
A new bank has decided to take a stance against cryptocurrencies. This time, an Australian bank, CBA, announced its decision to prohibit users from buying cryptocurrencies with the use of their credit cards. A similar decision was previously made by some huge banks in the US and UK.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is actually the largest bank in the country. According to the bank, customers will no longer be able to buy cryptocurrencies with credit cards starting today. Of course, the bank also gave some reasons to why it took this decision.
CBA says lack of regulation and cryptocurrency volatility led to the ban
According to the bank, the lack of regulation on the cryptocurrency market, as well as the high volatility of cryptocurrencies have determined the decision. The bank also made it clear that the ban will not apply to buying and selling cryptocurrencies using debit cards. The CBA made the statement in an official announcement:
“We have made this decision because we believe virtual currencies do not meet a minimum standard of regulation, reliability, and reputation when compared to currencies that we offer to our customers. Given the dynamic, volatile nature of virtual currency markets, this position is regularly reviewed.”
CBA is the first bank in Australia to impose such a ban, but this does not mean that other banks might follow. For instance, another big Australian bank, ANZ, said that it will not prohibit the use of credit cards for buying cryptocurrencies. It remains to be seen if ANZ will maintain this stance. The same thing was shared by Westpac, which also said that it does not have a ban in its plans.
However, if Australian banks are not considering such an evolution, we cannot say the same thing about US or UK banks. As previously mentioned, some banks in the two countries have barred their customers from accessing credit cards for cryptocurrency purchases.
