Poland Banks Pushing Companies to End BTC Exchange Contracts

bitSome local newspapers and online portals are reporting that Polish banks are forcing online payment providers, such as Cashbill and Bluemedia, to terminate contracts with Bitcoin exchanges and cantors. 

It appears that the issue is currently only being reported by Polish language media, as not a lot of information regarding the issue available in English media.  When Bitcoinist received an e-mail from Justyna Laskowska Witek of BitBay.net, we learned that his company is not the only one affected by this “game” being played by the banks in Poland.  This report says that, starting Monday, express payment on Cryptoins.com, BitBay.pl, Bitmarket24.pl, and Bitmarket.pl will also be affected. 

Banks Trying to Solve the Problem of Fraudulent Transactions

Banks are trying in this way to solve the problem of fraudulent transactions that do not handle their security.  PKO Bank Polski representative Michal Tkaczuk admits that in his opinion virtual currency markets are poorly regulated where client identification and procedures use by Bitcoin exchange platforms are inadequate and raise legal doubts.  According to him taking this into account, PKO Bank Polski acts to prevent suspicious transactions. 

However, Justyna Laskowska Witek writes to Bitcoinist:

This is blackmail – either operator will terminate contracts with Bitcoin businesses or banks will cut off all of the payments channels that will result in their bankruptcy.  Banks try to blame Bitcoin users for bank’s incompetence in securing banking transactions.  Despite the fact that Polish Bitcoin exchanges have an idea for combating fraudulent transactions and increase security, banks don’t want to discuss the problem. 

Witek says that the banking situation affected his exchange — BitBay — last Monday.  Although BitBay is a top Polish Bitcoin and Litecoin exchange, the situation has forced it to stop helping customers make fast PLN deposits. 

Bitcoinet.pl, a Polish language portal, reports that an ultimatum has been issued by the banks where they have decided to make this move because they cannot cope with the many scams took place recently due to PlusBank.  However, the portal makes it clear that the bank had nothing to do with the PlusBank case. 

Another online portal in Polish language Tarazbitcoin.pl cites the two notices received from BitBay and Cryptoins.com.  BitBay wrote:

“We regret to inform you that had disabled expressways and accelerated payments, which have so far been implemented by CashBill.  The operator was forced to terminate our agreement by banks, which thus trying to solve the problem of too many fraudulent transactions – by eliminating manual ‘problematic’ as stock cryptocurrency services.  Currently, we have been working on another solution for fast payments, but it can take, and we ask for your understanding.” 

A similar notice has been given by Cryptonis.com. 

Voices of Discontent

The people associated with Bitcoin exchanges and the community at large are showing concern over the attitude prevailing among the banks in Poland.  Rather than verifying the users, these banks are putting the blame and responsibility for verifying accounts onto Bitcoin exchanges. 

The Polish newspaper writes:

“In our opinion, the problem of using exchanges to illegal operations is largely due to the ease of setting up fake bank accounts, or extorted personal data, especially in the era of internet banking.  We hope that the banks will treat the current situation as a lesson and bring quickly to change its policy establishment of new bank accounts, and reliable verification of data of its customers.” 

What do you think about this move by Polish banks?  Let us know in the comments below!