HSBC Bank Australia is the latest among the country’s major banks to block transfers to crypto exchanges

What’s new? The Australian unit of banking giant HSBC has informed customers that their payments from accounts and credit cards to crypto exchanges are being blocked for “protection” purposes as of July 24. HSBC Bank Australia has thus become the latest major local bank to refuse to engage with the crypto industry due to concerns about fraud.

Material by Finance Feeds

What else is known? Back in May last year, the Australian bank Westpac banned customers from transferring money to the crypto exchange Binance “as part of a set of measures aimed at protecting the public from fraud.” The bank categorized Binance as a high-risk exchange where criminal funds are traded.

The step was taken after Westpac’s internal data showed that investment scams account for about half of all fraud losses, with a third of fraud-related transfers going to crypto exchanges.

In July of that year, one of the country’s leading commercial banks, National Australia Bank (NAB), also reported blocking transfers to “high-risk” crypto exchanges. Between March and July, it blocked AUD 270 million worth of transactions due to fraud risk.

Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), has introduced similar anti-fraud measures. As part of them, the bank will withhold certain payments to crypto exchanges for 24 hours. It also plans to impose a monthly transfer limit of 10 000 AUD ($6666) to crypto exchanges.

HSBC’s action is thus also part of a broad anti-fraud campaign. The bank cited data from Australia’s competition and consumer regulator showing that Australians lost up to $171 million to investment scams in 2023.

HSBC apologized for the “inconvenient” change, but stressed that its priority is to keep customers’ money safe. HSBC Australia currently serves 1,5 million customers at 45 branches across the country.

At the same time, parent company HSBC Global said it will still process customer payments to crypto exchanges and banking services will continue as normal.

HSBC Australia’s example was soon followed by Bendigo Bank, citing the need to protect customers from investment fraud.