TLDR
- WestPac CEO Anthony Miller apologizes after the bank froze a customer’s accounts after a $ 30,000 bitcoin transmission attempt
- Customer, known as Tim, recorded a call in which bank personnel questioned his transfer intentions
- Tim was locked up from his accounts for almost a week, claiming he missed Bitcoin price winnings
- The incident occurs when Australia develops new crypto regulations and handles debanal problems
- Tim has then closed his WestPac account and moved to another bank
In a case that highlights tension between traditional banking and cryptocurrency investments, Westpac CEO Anthony Miller has left a public apology After the bank has blocked the customer’s Bitcoin transfer of $ 30,000 and froze its accounts for almost a week.
The customer, identified only as Tim, had deposited $ 50,000 in his WestPac account and tried to transfer some to Australian Crypto Exchange Coinspot to buy Bitcoin. The transaction triggered intervention from WestPac’s risk management team, which questioned Tim about the purpose of his transfer.
Tim recorded the conversation with bank staff, Later it played on Sydney’s 2 GB radio. In the recording, a WestPac employed repeatedly challenged Tim’s response to the transfer purpose, which indicates that he was avoiding.
Customer left without access to funds
“I really try my best to help you as well as possible,” said the staff during the conversation.
“But I feel like you are trying to tip around the answers so far and simply tell you what you think I want to hear to get this pushed through as soon as possible.”
After the phone call, Tim’s accounts were frozen for several days. He claims that the delay caused him to miss potential gains from an increase in Bitcoin’s price during that period.
Tim, who had been a Westpac customer since he was 12 years old, expressed frustration at being denied access to his own money.
“He just had no intention to push it through, and just no intention to let me get the freedom to use my own dollars,” Tim told 2 GB of radio.
During the recorded call, WestPac told Tim:
“That’s because you use our bank platform. You have agreed to our terms … We will not be able to facilitate this payment if you do not come and honest.”
The bank defends action against shame
In a separate incident that aggravated the situation, a Westpac wrongly left Tim left a voice message intended for a colleague and praised the staff’s handling of the case despite the growing controversy.
When he spoke to the incident on 2 GB of radio, CEO Anthony Miller admitted that the bank had abused the situation.
“We apologize to Tim and apologize now to Tim that it didn’t really work as we wanted,” Miller said.
Miller defended WestPac’s broader anti-scammares when he apologizes for this specific case. He noted that one of five attempts at crypto transfers flagged by the bank over the past month was linked to fraud.
A WestPac spokesman told Yahoo Finance that although they could not comment on individual cases, is to stop fraud one of their “biggest priorities” and they try to look for red flags when customers request large cash withdrawals.
Westpac is one of Australia’s “large four” banks, which has a great influence on the country’s retail and commercial financial sectors.
After regaining access to their accounts, Tim withdrew all his money and moved to another bank.
Regulatory changes are ongoing
The incident comes when the Australian government works to address the debanal problems for individuals and companies in the cryptos sector.
The Albanese government has described a new regulatory framework for digital assets aimed at providing greater security for industry participants while taking up consumer protection and market integrity risks.
These reforms will require large cryptop platforms to obtain an Australian financial service, while excluding smaller companies and companies that are not involved in financial services.
In a separate but related development, Melbourne-based Blockchain company sharing has been selected as the first supplier of digital identity to tested technology for the Australian government’s verification attempts, which were approved last year to maintain social media restrictions for minor users.
The Sharing Pilot program will work with school students in Darwin and test a self-sucker identity platform that allows users to verify their age at the same time as control over their personal data.
