BofA Examines Use Of Credit Cards For Bitcoins

Bank of America and Citigroup, which currently allow customers to use their credit cards to purchase bitcoin, are looking over their cryptocurrency policies. This comes two weeks after Capital One Financial said it would no longer allow cryptocurrency purchases with its credit cards.

According to a report in CNBC, TD Bank also said that they were not processing some bitcoin transactions due to security measures in place. Discover Financial Services has prohibited the purchases of cryptocurrency via credit cards since 2015.

CNBC said that concerns about money laundering are among the financial firms’ worries about engaging with cryptocurrencies. Citing comments Discover CEO David Nelms made to Bloomberg this week, CNBC reported Nelms said that cryptocurrencies cause too many headaches for banks, forcing them to devote extensive time and resources to monitoring transactions for potential money laundering.

JPMorgan Chase, whose CEO Jamie Dimon famously called bitcoin a “fraud” but recently walked back from those comments, currently allows customers purchase cryptocurrencies with a Chase credit card.

Earlier in January, Visa terminated its relationship with WaveCrest, a cryptocurrency card provider. Citing an email from WaveCrest, CNBC reported at the time that the company said it had been forced to close all Visa cards, which left thousands of people with declined transactions and worries about how to access their money.

“As a licensed E-Money Institution, WaveCrest is required to safeguard funds to cover all of its issued electronic money, and we can confirm that these funds are safe and available for redemption through other channels,” the company said in the statement. Meanwhile, Visa told CNBC that it terminated its relationship with a single prepaid card issuer in Europe for violating Visa’s operating regulations. “That issuer, WaveCrest, was required to close its Visa card products, some of which were linked to cryptocurrency wallets,” the statement said.