Executives from Australia’s major banks defended their decision to impose restrictions on payments to local cryptocurrency exchanges during a panel at the Australian Blockchain Week. Commonwealth Bank’s managing director of blockchain and digital assets, Sophie Gilder, explained that the bank added the restrictions after seeing an alarming rate of scams that involved crypto, revealing that one in three dollars scammed from Australians touch crypto. 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%. Despite criticism from some Australian crypto exchange customers, Australian lawyer Aaron Lane defended the banks’ actions, noting that time delays, declining transactions, and placing deposit limits are all mechanisms for banks to retake control and limit their legal and regulatory risks against the growing problem of scams involving cryptocurrencies. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reported that Australians lost AUD 221.3 million ($148.3 million) from investment scams where crypto was used as the payment method in 2022, a massive 162.4% increase from 2021.
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