Polish Exchanges Lose Payment Processors in Bitcoin Crackdown

Jun 18, 2015 at 15:45 UTCUpdated Jun 19, 2015 at 16:14 UTC. Polish payment processors and at least one bank in the country have closed the accounts of local bitcoin exchanges.

Pl confirmed that the regional payments processors they work with - CashBill and BlueMedia - had informed them that their accounts were being closed at the request of their own partner banks.

Pl told CoinDesk that PKO Bank Polski had also informed them that their bank accounts were being closed.

A spokesperson for CashBill, who declined to provide specifics, told CoinDesk that the company had been informed by "Various banks" in Poland that continued work with bitcoin exchanges "Will result in termination of our services in those banks".

"Our aim is to provide 100% payment channel coverage of for all our customers. This has forced us to immediately terminate our operations with all bitcoin exchanges."

When reached for comment, PKO Bank Polski representative Michal Tkaczuk declined to comment on the account closures, calling it "a subject of bank secrecy".

"In our opinion virtual currency markets are poorly regulated. Client identification and procedures use by bitcoin exchange platforms are inadequate and raise legal doubts. Taking this into account, PKO Bank Polski acts to prevent suspicious transactions."

"We would gladly add bitcoin payments to our payment channel portfolio, but sadly bitcoin is not currently regulated in any way by Polish law and doing so would constitute a legal risk for our operation," concluded the spokesperson, adding that the change in policy "Left us puzzled".

Pl previously had its bank account suspended by Bank BPH in January this year.

Justyna Laskowska Witek, a marketing specialist at BitBay, said CashBill informed them earlier this week that it had received instructions from its bank partner to terminate its agreement with the digital currency exchange.