UK bank customers lodge 10,000 complaints over blocked crypto payments

The report from advocacy group Stand With Crypto UK reveals that Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, and NatWest accounted for more than half of the submissions. Lloyds alone drew 2,297 complaints, a figure that remains difficult to reconcile with the bank’s lack of publicly stated restrictions on crypto-related transfers. While banks frequently cite fraud prevention and risk management as justifications for these barriers, customers report encountering obstacles even at institutions without official prohibitions.

This friction persists despite the government’s pending regulatory framework, which is set to bring more digital asset activities under Financial Conduct Authority oversight by October 2027. Currently, however, even FCA-registered crypto firms face challenges in accessing standard banking services. Industry leaders, including Coinbase’s European policy head Katie Harries, argue that banks should shift from blanket industry-wide restrictions to more nuanced assessments of individual transactions. The data, gathered from self-selected users across all 650 parliamentary constituencies, indicates that the divide between banking risk policies and consumer access remains a significant hurdle for the UK crypto sector.