India’s SBI Bank stops payments to crypto exchanges

Karthik Subramanian

The State Bank of India, the largest public bank in India, has stopped the payments made by its clients to crypto exchanges in yet another crackdown by the banks in India on crypto.

Though the official stance of the Reserve Bank of India continues to be a wait-and-watch policy as far as cryptocurrencies are concerned with a law being expected on this issue within the next few months, the banks themselves have been slowly and steadily throttling the sector over the last few months. Though no specific reason for the same has been given, it is generally believed that the RBI and the government generally do not have a very favorable view of cryptocurrencies as they believe that it is being used for scams and frauds and it is believed that they are likely to ban them outright when the law gets passed.

All these activities from the banks are believed to be a means to that end though the RBI and the finance ministry seem to be more inclined towards the introduction of a digital currency rather than allowing the spread and usage of a variety of cryptocurrencies. SBI joins a long list of banks in India that have been avoiding onboarding merchants related to crypto and have also been regularly sending out communication to their customers to avoid payments to crypto exchanges and any kind of dealing related to the cryptocurrencies.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) continues to allow payments to crypto merchants though and it is this ambiguous and contradictory stand taken by different banks with regards to this issue that seems to be confusing the crypto users in India leading to a lot of frustration. In fact, regulators and central banks around the world continue to seem to be confused about how to deal with the crypto industry.

While some countries have fully embraced them, there are others who have chosen the diametrically opposite path and have gone ahead and banned cryptos outright. But countries like India, the US, and others continue to be not sure on how to deal with the ecosystem and seem to be reluctant to go either way at this point of time, which has kept the crypto industry and users on tenterhooks in these countries.

Read this next

Digital Assets

Tether earns $700 million in Q1, taking excess reserves to $1.6 billion

Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino said the world’s largest stablecoin issuer expects to earn more than $700 million in the January-Mach quarter, which will be added to the reserve backing its stablecoin (USDT).

Digital Assets

Narwhal Finance Secures $1M in Seed Funding Led by Animoca Ventures

Narwhal Finance received strong support from Animoca Ventures and angel investors in a $1 million seed funding round, reinforcing the company’s vision of providing an accessible platform to all.

Technology

SteelEye tries ChatGPT for market surveillance

This capability can be used as a starting point for initiating a surveillance investigation and to standardize workflow processes to boost the throughput and consistency of cases. It is also useful when analyzing communications in foreign languages, as the system returns the above insights in English regardless of the languages being used.

Industry News

SEC charges ex-Morgan Stanley advisor of NBA players after $13m fraud

Darryl Matthew Cohen was arrested this week and is facing three different federal counts of fraud, which could amount to 20 years in prison if convicted, besides the SEC complaint. 

Industry News

AWS FinTech Africa Accelerator launched, applications until April 27, 2023

Founders will be offered tech resources, expert guidance, and a global network of industry leaders, technologists, entrepreneurs, investors, associations, and partners, in order to build their fintech products. 

Industry News

Interactive Brokers pays unmatched interest up to USD 4.33% on cash balances over $10,000

For clients of Interactive Brokers, interest accrues daily, and payments are posted on a monthly basis. Interactive Brokers’ cash management is integrated into client broker accounts, making it simple to earn interest and borrow at the lowest rates without transferring cash.

Retail FX

FP Markets adds cTrader to roster of trading platforms that include MT4, MT5, Iress

“Our market share swings towards the more sophisticated segment of traders and we have been inundated with requests for an additional platform with more institutional-style characteristics. The addition of the cTrader trading platform offering allows our clients the choice to further shape their trading experience with us.”

Digital Assets

SEC mulls lawsuit against Coinbase’s staking and spot trading

Shares in Coinbase fell 15 percent after the US Securities and Exchange Commission threatened a potential enforcement action against the crypto exchange over certain products.

Digital Assets

Kraken halts ACH transactions amid banking crisis

San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken says it will no longer process Automated Clearing House (ACH) following the failure of its payments partner, Silvergate Bank.

<