Indian banks haven’t been a great help to the crypto industry. Even though the Supreme court has discarded RBIs statement that crypto is illegal, these banks continue to misuse their powers. They haven’t been providing services to Indian crypto exchanges, and this has halted the business for these platforms. And now HDFC and SBI bank has officially started to warn users if they have been dealing with cryptocurrency. The banks said that user accounts and cards could be blocked if used for Bitcoin purchases.
Banks are crossing limits now!
@HDFC_Bank I received an email threatening withdrawal of banking services because I purchased some crypto. Email cites 2018 RBI guidelines which were quashed by Supreme Court last year. Given crypto being deliberated by law makers, is this not harassment? pic.twitter.com/E3CAPx7hL4
— Sanat Mehrotra (@sanatmehrotra) May 28, 2021
If you think about it, then a bank user can do what the heck he wants with his money (considering it is not illegal). But in India, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The emails and circulars that HDFC is sending out to users dealing with crypto are just baseless. The circular has an attachment that says that the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has coined crypto as illegal. But these banks fail to address the fact that the Supreme Court overruled this decision of RBI in 2020.
Now sbi🥴 pic.twitter.com/m8CcuCYLMv
— Suraj (@Soorajapawar) May 29, 2021
And then we have SBI, which is no different. They have been sending out emails to customers asking them not to see the bank’s card to purchase crypto. SBI says that usage of credit or debit cards for such transactions could lead to the suspension of the same. Users who are new to crypto, as well as users who have been in this for a long time now, are both getting such emails.
What’s next?
Reports suggest that the Indian government is planning to set up a panel that makes laws for crypto in India. Once these laws are made, we can expect the banks to follow and provide proper service to all exchanges and users. Till then, we have to make do with p2p or deposit money occasionally when exchanges manage to partner with some bank or the other. As of now, WazirX is having Mobikwik as their payments portal, while surprisingly, BitBns still has HDFC as their partner for depositing money.
But I don’t think that the government will not be proactive in this regard and will take their solid time to make new laws.
What are your thoughts on the HDFC and SBI bank sending out circulars to users dealing with crypto? And are you one of them who has received such emails or letters? Let us know in the comments below. Also, if you found our content informative, do like and share it with your friends.