Lloyds Bank to ban credit card owners from buying Bitcoin

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Lloyds Banking Group will ban its credit card customers from buying Bitcoin amid fears that they could run up huge losses, the Telegraph reported on Sunday.

Britain's biggest mortgage lender will block any attempts to buy the digital currency with a credit card starting Monday, but digital currencies could be purchased with debit cards, the paper said.

Credit card customers of the bank, including Halifax, Bank of Scotland and MBNA will be blocked from buying Bitcoin online through a blacklist which will flag up sellers, according to the report.

Lloyds could not be immediately reached for comment on the report.

The company fears that credit card owners will buy Bitcoin hoping to make a profit when its value goes up but will be laden with debt if its price falls.

Reuters Photo.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said Britain should take a serious look at digital currencies such as Bitcoin because of the way criminals can use them.

Digital currencies plunged on Friday, with Bitcoin at one point sliding below 8,000 US dollars and headed for its biggest weekly loss since December 2013, amid worries about a regulatory clampdown globally. But values of the highly volatile asset fluctuated by over 20 percent during Sunday trading, reaching over 9,400 US dollars.

Source(s): Reuters