National Australia Bank (NAB) said it will block payments to some ”high-risk” crypto exchanges to protect its customers as part of a ”bank-wide-scam” strategy.<\/p>\n
NAB<\/a> announced<\/a> the plan today, along with other measures to protect customers, without naming the platforms, and said it had intervened in more than $270 million worth of customer transactions that raised scam concerns since March.<\/p>\n Australians lost more than $221 million to crypto scams last year, it said, adding that in a recent 30-day period crypto scams<\/a> accounted for close to 50% of scam funds reported to the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange.<\/p>\n “We want to make it as hard as possible for these criminal and reduce the impact on our customers,” said Chris Sheehan, group investigations and fraud executive. “Our research shows four in 10 Australians are ‘extremely willing’ for payments to be slower if they were better protected from scammers.”<\/p>\n To protect its customers and residents, Australia has been boycotting transactions to cryptocurrency exchanges<\/a> through its banks. The crackdown, which has seen the participation of banks such as Westpac and Commonwealth Bank<\/a>, has resulted in the blocking of transactions<\/a> amounting to millions to exchanges. NAB is the most recent bank to join the movement.<\/p>\n Due to intensified crypto scrutiny by Australian authorities, the National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB) together with other top banks like Australia & New Zealand Banking Group and Commonwealth Bank of Australia are blocking payments to crypto exchanges deemed as high risk.<\/p>\n — TheCryptoBasic (@thecryptobasic) July 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n