NatWest Group, a majority state-owned British banking and insurance holding company, has reportedly limited the daily amount that customers can send to crypto exchanges. One of the firms includes Binance, which was recently banned by the UK Finance Conduct Authority (FCA), as there are scam concerns among the group.
According to Reuters, citing a spokesperson from the holding company, the cap was imposed on June 24, and it targets several cryptocurrency exchanges. However, the firm did not elaborate on which specific companies were included in the limits set.
“We have seen a high level of cryptocurrency investment scams targeting our customers across retail and business banking, particularly through social media sites. To protect our customers from the criminals exploiting these platforms, we’re temporarily reducing the maximum daily amount that a customer can send to cryptocurrency exchanges as well as blocking Payments to a small number of cryptocurrency asset firms where we have seen particularly significant levels of fraud-related harm for our customers,” the spokesperson commented, who added that the amount varies on each crypto Exchange , which could range in the thousands of pounds.
Binance under UK Scrutiny
Binance has not issued an official comment about the matter as of press time nor answered press inquiries. Over the weekend, the British financial watchdog prohibited the major digital asset exchange from operating in the United Kingdom. “Binance Markets Limited is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK. This firm is part of a wider Group (Binance Group). Due to the imposition of requirements by the FCA, Binance Markets Limited is not currently permitted to undertake any regulated activities without the prior written consent of the FCA,” the authority said at that time.
Still, Binance, founded by Changpeng Zhao (CZ), has argued in the past that they have been working closely with regulators and industry leaders to strengthen its protection policies towards users further.
