JPMorgan’s UK Bank Chase to Ban Crypto Transactions After Increase in Scams

JPMorgan’s British retail bank Chase will ban crypto transactions made by customers from October 16 due to an increase in fraud and scams, the company said on Tuesday.

“We’ve seen an increase in the number of crypto scams targeting UK consumers, so we have taken the decision to prevent the purchase of crypto assets on a Chase debit card or by transferring money to a crypto site from a Chase account,” a spokesperson for the bank said.

Chase has become the latest lender in the UK to restrict customers’ access to crypto amid long-running concerns over its use in online scams run by criminals.

JPMorgan has attracted more than 1.6 million customers to its Chase retail bank since launching the mobile app-based service in Britain two years ago, and plans to roll out the consumer bank in other international markets over time.

Chase informed customers of its planned policy change by email on Tuesday morning, the bank confirmed. Crypto media outlet Coindesk reported the move earlier on Tuesday.

In March, NatWest (NWG.L) imposed new limits on the daily and monthly amount customers can send to crypto exchanges, seeking to protect consumers from “crypto-criminals.”

Spain’s Santander said last year it would block UK customers from sending real-time payments to crypto exchanges as part of measures to protect customers from scams.

Last month, payments giant PayPal announced that it would stop allowing UK customers to buy cryptocurrencies through its platform from October as it worked to comply with new rules on crypto promotions.

Britain’s financial regulator is due to bring in tougher rules to limit how crypto is advertised to British consumers, including requiring crypto firms to carry warnings about the risk and scrapping “refer a friend” bonuses.

© Thomson Reuters 2023