National Australia Bank Turns Back on Bitcoin, Closes Accounts
The National Australia Bank (NAB) has decided to dissociate itself from bitcoin, informing bitcoin-related customers it will be closing their accounts next month. The news is significant as NAB was previously Australia's most bitcoin-friendly bank, with their representatives actively seeking to build relationships with bitcoin businesses and working with them to understand digital currency issues like fraud prevention. An Australian trader who operates through LocalBitcoins.com received a letter today informing him of the change in direction. It reads: "NAB has a responsibility and....
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National Australia Bank and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia will be taking part in a joint project led by global financial innovation firm R3 to design protocols based on blockchain technology at the same time as the ACCC has begun investigating the banks for closing the accounts of Bitcoin businesses last month. Australia’s two of the largest banks, National Australia Bank and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, will join R3, which includes 20 other major banking groups including HSBC and Citigroup, to explore the underlying technology of bitcoin and its uses to optimize and improve....
We've known for a while now that banks generally like to stay hands-off when it comes to bitcoin, but National Australia Bank is seemingly taking it one step further. Bitcoin news website CoinDesk reported Wednesday that the bank will be closing customer accounts in early May. That's according to a letter received by an Australian LocalBitcoins.com user Yo Shima, who operates under the AusBitcoins handle. Snippet of the letter: NAB has a responsibility and commitment to continually review its risk profile and the businesses we bank, ensuring that those businesses do not pose risks to NAB....
The NAB, or National Australian Bank successfully made its first Blockchain transaction of $10 from its home in Australia to Canada. Even though this is a small amount of money, it is a historical moment for the bank which plans to continue developing Blockchain for Fintech uses. The transaction across continents. According to NAB, the transaction was between 2 employee accounts, one from Australia and the other located in Canada. The transaction itself took roughly 10 seconds to complete and is considered Proof-of-Concept to the bank. Jonathan Davey, Executive General Manager of NAB said:....
In this week of closures, crashes and heartbleed, here are three of the biggest stories we covered on CoinDesk. Bitcoin price falls below $400: The price of bitcoin hit a low of $344 this week following deposit freezes at Chinese bitcoin exchanges. The initial drop happened after an announcement from Chinese exchange BTCTrade.com, which was then corroborated by similar statements from Huobi and BTC100.org. This is the lowest the price has fallen since November 2013. National Australia Bank turns back on bitcoin: NAB has decided to disassociate itself from bitcoin and will be closing the....
Banks in Australia have mixed feelings about Bitcoin and its related services. On September 21, 2015, Banks in the region sent letters to Australian Bitcoin exchanges letting them know their accounts will cease with no explanation to why. According to the The Australian Financial Review, 17 native Bitcoin businesses have received letters, with 13 of them....