The reason for blocking accounts of Ukrainians who conducted transactions with cryptocurrency is revealed

Last week, PrivatBank customers complained about the blocking of their bank cards. In particular, it concerned transactions for the purchase or sale of crypto assets.

Representatives of PrivatBank stated that «in its activities, the bank is guided exclusively by the requirements of the current legislation of Ukraine and the NBU regulations governing relations in the field of banking.»

«In accordance with the law „On Prevention and Counteraction to Legalization (Laundering) of the Proceeds of Crime, Terrorist Financing and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction“, the bank, as a subject of primary financial monitoring, is obliged to: ensure the detection of financial transactions subject to financial monitoring before and during their conduct,» the response reads.

In turn, a number of users reported blocking their cards at Monobank for «large receipts over the past seven days.»

PrivatBank’s support team said that the information about the blocking of cards was fake. In a commentary to Ekonomichna Pravda, PrivatBank also noted that no new financial monitoring rules are applied to clients.

A representative of the bank’s support team told Incrypted that the issue is «individual for each client.»

«If transactions are made and the turnover on the card exceeds the information previously provided by the client, the bank may request transaction data.»

Monobank’s support team also commented on the situation:

«The blocking is individual for each client, depending on what transactions are carried out. In general, we block withdrawals from cryptocurrencies. There may be different reasons for blocking cards.»

As a reminder, on March 16, 2022, PrivatBank temporarily banned its Ukrainian clients from depositing hryvnia on cryptocurrency exchanges. This restriction is also related to the NBU’s decision and is valid for the entire period of martial law. At the same time, another Ukrainian bank, Monobank, reported that their cross-border payment service was facing problems. However, no difficulties were observed with hryvnia transactions within Ukraine.

Last year, at the end of April, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) restricted cryptocurrency purchases to UAH 100,000 per person per month. The goal is to reduce the outflow of capital from Ukraine.