Australian banks claim 40% of scams 'touch' crypto as it defends restrictions
Australia’s cryptocurrency industry banking woes will likely continue, with the government and major banks signaling no intention to back down against scams that “touch” crypto.
During a panel at the Australian Blockchain Week on June 26, Sophie Gilder, managing director of blockchain and digital assets at Commonwealth Bank (CBA) shed light on the bank's restrictions on crypto exchange payments, noting it was put in place after seeing an alarming rate of scams that ended up involving cryptocurrency.
“One in three of the dollars that are scammed from Australians touch crypto, one in three. So it's the single largest lever that we have to reduce this impact on our customers,” she said.
Nigel Dobson, banking services portfolio lead at ANZ referred to data from the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange which suggests the figures may be even higher at 40%.
On June 8, CBA followed Westpac’s lead in imposing pauses, limits and outright blocks on certain payments to cryptocurrency exchanges, both citing an increasing threat of investment scams. Australia's other two major banks, the ANZ and NAB, have not yet indicated whether they would impose similar restrictions.
A Treasury official confirmed that the moves so far have come at the banks' own “volition” but that both the banks and the government have a “shared view” that cryptocurrency scams are “unacceptably high” at the moment.
“From the government's point of view, [they] need to invest more in reducing scams, and that’s the government, but it's also banks, other people in the financial system have to work together to reduce scams to maintain trust in the system," said Trevor Power, the Australian Treasury assistant secretary.
However, Gilder clarified that CBA’s measures weren’t
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