After Barclays, Santander Bank Blocks Payments to Binance in UK Citing Customer Protection

Santander Bank in the U.K. has become the latest high street bank in the country to block fund transfers to cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Recently, Barclays and Natwest banks reportedly made a similar move.

A number of Santander Bank customers reported on social media that they have received an email from the bank stating, “We’re stopping payments to Binance for your protection,” beginning on July 8. The bank explained:

This follows the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s recent warning to consumers and is to help protect you from fraud. For now, we want to be restricting payments from finance to your account(s).

The email continues: “We are taking this step as we want to do everything we can to protect you and help keep your money safe. We’ll continue to monitor the situation, and let you know if anything changes.”

A Santander customer representative further explained on social media: “In recent months we have seen a large increase in UK customers becoming the victims of cryptocurrency fraud. Keeping our customers safe is a top priority, so we have decided to prevent payments to Binance following the FCA’s warning to consumers.”

Recently, two other major high street banks in the U.K. made a similar move to block funds to Binance: Barclays and Natwest.

The FCA was not the only regulator that issued a warning on Binance. The authorities in Thailand, Cayman Islands, and Japan also issued a similar warning about the crypto exchange.

Binance recently suspended euro deposits via SEPA bank transfers. At the time of writing, this option is still disabled on the exchange’s website.

What do you think about Santander Bank blocking fund transfers to Binance for customer protection? Let us know in the comments section below.