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05-Feb-2018
Lloyds Financial institution bans Bitcoin purchases on its bank cards
LearningAndFinance
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Lloyd's Banking Group will tell its 9 million credit card customers that it will block any
attempts to buy Bitcoin according to the Telegraph .
Three major USA banks - JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup - announced
Friday that they will no longer allow customers to buy cryptocurrencies using their credit
cards.
However, the value of Bitcoin has fallen from £14,000 (Dh72,500) in December to less than
£6,000 (Dh31,100) now and Lloyds fears that the bank could take a large hit if transactions
for units of the currency bought on their cards are not settled, leaving the group with a large
debt.
Concerns also continue to grow that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are being used by
criminals for drug dealing and money laundering.
"Across Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA, we do not accept credit card
transactions involving the purchase of cryptocurrencies", said a company spokeswoman.
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Bank of America began declining credit card transactions with known crypto exchanges on
Friday.
Credit card customers of the bank will be blocked from buying Bitcoin online through a
blacklist that will flag sellers.
Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase will reportedly no longer enable customers to
purchase bitcoin with credit cards starting in February, reports say.
Explaining the ban, a Lloyds spokeswoman said: "We continually review our products and
procedures and this is part of that".
For credit card issuers, there's a worry that borrowers could make wrong bets on the
notoriously volatile crypto units, suffer losses and are unable to repay their card dues. In
addition to the difficulties of keeping an eye on purchases - something they're required to do
- associated with crypto-coins, there's also always the risk of somebody buying more than
they can afford to pay.