barclays1

Media: The Daily Telegraph {Main}
Edition:
Date: Tuesday 6, February 2018
Page: 9
More banks
review lending
to customers
to buy Bitcoin
By Katie Morley
CONSUMER AFFAIRS EDITOR
MAJOR high street banks are reviewing
whether to let customers buy Bitcoin
on their credit cards, they said last
night. It follows the decision by Britain’s
biggest bank, Lloyds, to ban customers
using cash borrowed on credit
cards to buy cryptocurrency over fears
that they could run up huge losses.
Barclays Bank said it was keeping
the matter under “close review”, while
Santander said it was continuing to
monitor the situation.
According to LendEDU, a personal
loan research firm, more than 18 per
cent of Bitcoin investors have used
borrowed money to trade the cryptocurrency.
It raises fears that people
buying Bitcoin with money borrowed
on credit cards will become laden with
debt if its price falls further.
The price of Bitcoin has already
fallen by 57 per cent from £14,000 in
December to less than £6,000, and
Lloyds fears that it could end up footing
the bill for unpaid debt should the
price fall any lower.
It is believed that hundreds of thousands
of British people invested in the
cryptocurrency last year amid its extraordinary
13-fold increase.
A Barclays spokesman said: “We
constantly review our protections for
customers as a responsible bank and
lender, and are keeping this matter under
close review.
“At present UK customers can use
both their Barclays debit card and Barclaycard
credit card to purchase cryptocurrency
legitimately. We take
precautions to assess affordability before
extending credit, flag and prevent
any suspicious transactions and also
closely monitor credit risk.”
A Santander spokesman said: “We
will continue to monitor cryptocurrencies
as we do with any other factors
that could impact our customers.
“We apply rigorous lending criteria
and monitor customer spending. If we
feel someone is at risk of getting into
financial difficulty we have support
measures in place to help them.”
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