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Australian: Banks investigated by competition watchdog for closing bitcoin accounts

By  |  October 19, 2015

Australian banks have been closing bitcoin bank accounts – now they’re getting probed by the country’s competition watchdog who is getting on the case.

Some 17 bitcoin companies received letters in September saying that their accounts were getting shut down, in what the companies themselves called a “crackdown” from the country’s banks.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) confirmed today that it would be investigating the banks over this, as ACCC chairman Rod Sims said to the Australian Financial Review:

It is being investigated. We have already spoken to some banking representatives and sought some information. It is all still early stage, but under way.

We are asking the banks why they acted as they did and what contact there was between them.

The ACCC is acting on concerns that banks are colluding to keep new rivals out of the market.

Full content: Finance Magnates

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