Australian Senate Committee Hears Crypto Firms Complaints Banking Denials – Bits Media

Cryptocurrency companies appealed to a special committee of the Australian Senate with complaints about denial of service by banks without explaining the reasons.

According to publication
The Sydney Morning Herald, two cryptocurrency exchanges - Aus Merchant and Bitcoin Babe - have repeatedly denied providing banking services without explanation from financial institutions. Their leaders spoke at a meeting of the ad hoc committee of the upper house of the Australian parliament, "Australia as a Technology and Financial Center", held on Wednesday,

Regional Head of the international payment company Nium Michael Minasyan (Michael Minassian) said, that Australia was the only jurisdiction of 41 countries, where Nium was denied banking services.

Founder of the Bitcoin Babe exchange Mikaela Juric (Michaela Juric) told the committee, that her company 91 once faced with the termination of banking services in a seven-year business history. Besides, Juric and her family were denied personal banking services, what affected their ability to receive basic utilities.

Yurich received no explanation for the refusal of service from financial institutions, and that banks are taking an "anti-competitive" stance because of the perceived threat, which the cryptocurrency industry supposedly represents for traditional finance.

“They don't like competition, which comes from bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies ", – she said.

In her address to the committee, Jurich stated, that she received a refusal from the largest banks in the country, including Commonwealth (CBA), Westpac и Bank of Queensland. Aus Merchant Managing Director Mitchell Travers (Mitchell Travers) provided the committee with evidence, that four financial institutions refused to service his company.

"As I know, it was a position of risk avoidance and rejection ", – said Travers. “The reason was, that we were not in the sphere of interest of these banks, and we were not given the opportunity to go through the extended due diligence procedures ".

Senator Andrew Bragg (Andrew Bragg) checked with Travers, whether the registration of his company in the Austrac state financial control system influenced the bank's decision. Travers confirmed, what was refused, despite registration with Austrac, a similar situation was stated by Yurich.

Bragg said, that the denial of services by banks to cryptocurrency companies may be due to the lack or low level of industry regulation. He asked representatives of firms, will strengthening regulation help their work and cooperation with the banking sector.

"Of course, it is possible ", – said Yurich. “Strengthening regulation in the field of custody services is very important… on the licensing side, we must be very careful, because technology develops every year, if not every month ".

According to a recent poll
Finder Consumer Sentiment Tracker, about 17% Australians own cryptocurrencies. The total amount of crypto assets in the wallets of Australian citizens is estimated at $8 billion.