劳埃德银行禁止客户通过信用卡购买虚拟货币

本周，劳埃德银行集团（Lloyds Banking Group）宣布，将禁止其在劳埃德银行、苏格兰银行、哈利法克斯银行和MBNA银行的900万名持卡客户通过信用卡进行虚拟货币交易。

圣诞节前夕，比特币和其他虚拟货币（如以太币和XRP）价格急剧上涨，引发了许多普通储户的投资兴趣，毕竟过去这些年普通储蓄的利率实在太低了。

然而，新年期间虚拟货币交易价格大幅下降57%，令不少投资新手蒙受了巨额损失，并对此后的交易望而却步。而这样的巨幅波动也是劳埃德银行集团推出此次禁令的主要原因

此前，有关执法机构和监管部门承诺将加强反洗钱监管，打击犯罪分子利用匿名加密货币的行为，而这也直接导致了加密货币价格的大幅下挫。

其实不只是劳埃德银行集团，在过去几个月，包括摩根大通银行、美国银行、Capital One、Discover和花旗在内的多家美国银行也先后对加密货币交易颁布了禁令。

英文原文

Lloyds Banking Group has banned customers from buying bitcoin on credit cards, afraid that wild gyrations in cryptocurrency prices could leave it footing the bill for unpaid debts.

The banking group has told its nine million cardholding customers at Lloyds, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA that it will not recognise virtual currency transactions on its credit cards with effect from today.

A sharp acceleration in the price of bitcoin and other virtual currencies such as ether and XRP in the run-up to Christmas provoked an explosion of interest in the market among ordinary savers suffering from years of low interest rates.

However, a 57% crash in value during New Year's trading has caught many novice investors flat-footed and nursing huge losses.

Bitcoin ended last week down 30% at $8,291.87 - way below the $19,000 it reached last November.

The crackdown comes as law enforcement agencies and regulators promise to tighten anti-money laundering rules to counter the use of anonymous virtual currencies by criminals who are looking to evade detection by the authorities.

Lloyds is currently the first of the UK's main banks to disbar bitcoin transactions on its cards, although several US banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, Discover, and CitiGroup have instituted similar cryptocurrency bans in recent months.

译者：高旭

来源：FINEXTRA

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