Australia’s top banks won’t do business with crypto firms: report

Two local digital currency exchanges said that none of the top four banks would do business with them.

Westpac and National Australia Bank (NAB) rejected criticism that they are hindering competition by refusing to do business with cryptocurrency providers, Reuters reported based on a regular parliamentary hearing.

Many of Australia's top financial institutions have not engaged with crypto despite its huge growth in the past year, citing its high risks.

"It's one of the emerging issues that we are looking at - what should our relationship be, if at all, with cryptocurrency," NAB Chief Executive Ross McEwan said during the parliamentary hearing.

Also read: NAB buys Citi’s Australian consumer business for $882m

The bank does not have a policy specifically excluding crypto-related customers, but did not serve any of them. McEwan said that they would only do so if it was profitable and the bank could tolerate the risks.

A day earlier, local digital currency exchanges Bitcoin Babe and Aus Merchant told a parliamentary committee exploring how to regulate the sector that none of the Big Four banks would do business with them.

Here’s more from Reuters.