UK’s Starling Bank to Lift Ban Blocking Payments to Crypto Exchanges in 3 Weeks
The temporary ban was in response to concern about “high levels of suspected financial crime” associated with such payments.
Jun 1, 2021 at 3:31 p.m. UTCUpdated Sep 14, 2021 at 1:04 p.m. UTC
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The U.K.'s Starling bank said it will resume cryptocurrency exchange deposits on June 23 after the bank installs an enhanced payment review process.
- Starling took temporary measures to suspend deposits on Saturday over concerns about “high levels of suspected financial crime with payments to some cryptocurrency exchanges,” Alexandra Frean, the chief corporate affairs officer at Starling, said in an emailed statement.
- Frean told CoinDesk the issues that led to the ban are not just an issue for Starling but for all U.K. banks. Starling apologized for the inconvenience caused to customers and said users can still make outbound payments to cryptocurrency exchanges with their Starling debit card.
- “The suspension will lift on 23 June following the introduction of an enhanced payment review process. The block only affects outbound payments, inbound payments in GBP are unaffected,” said Frean.
- Users have also complained on social media about similar blocks by high-street bank Barclays and online bank Monzo. A Barclays’ spokesperson earlier denied that such a ban was in place while Monzo declined to comment.
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