Bendigo Bank, one of Australia’s “Big Four” banks, has announced that it will be instituting blocks on “high-risk crypto payments” in order to protect its 2.3 million customers from investment scams.
The bank mentioned that these new rules will add “some friction to certain genuine payments,” though it is not disclosing further details.
This is the fourth major bank in Australia to do so, following Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac.
Chainalysis APAC Policy Head Chengyi Ong has warned that these blocks could force Australia’s crypto public to interact with offshore exchanges, ultimately driving crypto exchanges and users outside the jurisdiction of authorities.
