Crypto-Friendly Banks in Australia (and the Other Ones)

The most crypto-friendly banks in Australia: What is the best bank to be in if you want to buy and sell crypto? CoinJar has spoken to multiple banks, and also the people who use them. This is to find out the lay of the land when it comes to moving money on and off crypto exchanges in Australia.

The big banks in Australia have varying policies regarding crypto exchanges. Most of them have imposed restrictions on their customers when it comes to transferring money to crypto exchanges.

Their rationale is that there are numerous scams in the crypto space. However, some individuals speculate that these policies may also stem from the fact that crypto and DeFi pose competition to the traditional banking industry.

So here is our definitive list of which banks are crushing it in terms of crypto-friendliness, and the ones that are not.

Number One: ANZ

The Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ) seems to be very easy to work with if you want to buy and sell crypto via exchanges like CoinJar.

ANZ does not have a publicly available policy regarding the maximum amount of money you can transfer from your ANZ account to a crypto exchange. However, a simple call to 13 13 14 will provide information about their policies.

According to an ANZ spokesperson, there are currently no strict limits on the amount you can send to a cryptocurrency exchange.

However, if you are a new customer making your first transfer to a crypto exchange, this transaction might trigger the fraud detection team. Consequently, the transaction could be held for up to 72 hours. Once the fraud team understands your intentions and identity, they should not bother you again, theoretically.

Limits on ANZ

The ANZ spokesperson emphasised that there are no restrictions on the amount you can transfer to crypto exchanges. However, as with any transaction, there are limits based on the payment method you choose.

For pay-anyone transfers, the standard daily limit is $25,000. If you use BPay, a single transaction can go up to $50,000 per day. Additionally, internet banking has a daily limit of $75,000.

It’s important to note that this policy is still evolving at ANZ, and changes may occur. Before opening an account at ANZ, consider making a call to verify the most up-to-date information.

Keep in mind that ANZ blocks payments to Binance, and also restricts access to the DeFi platform SafeHaven.io. If you intend to use either of these platforms, ANZ may not be the right bank for you. Or perhaps avoid these platforms and stay with ANZ

If this information remains accurate, and the fraud team verifies your authenticity, it seems that ANZ, at least at first glance, is a highly crypto-friendly bank.

ING

ING and crypto friendliness: ING is considered crypto friendly. This means that if you have an ING account, you can easily transfer money to a platform like CoinJar, which deals with cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin or Ethereum).

ING told CoinJar that they don’t have any particular limits on how much you can transfer from your ING bank account onto cryptocurrency exchanges like CoinJar. They also don’t have any crypto exchanges or brokers banned.

Deposit limits and delays

ING doesn’t impose any specific limits on deposits. However, there’s a catch: if you deposit more than $1,000, the transaction gets delayed by 1 business day. So, if you’re transferring a large amount, you’ll need to be patient.

On the other hand, ANZ doesn’t have this delay for large deposits. So, if you’re an impatient crypto enthusiast, ANZ might be a better choice.

ING doesn’t support PayID or Osko transfers for amounts over $1,000 per day. These are fast payment methods used for instant transfers.

In simpler terms, if you want to send more than $1,000 quickly, you might need to explore other options beyond ING.

Limitations at ING

The only drawback is that ING don’t offer business accounts. So if you are a professional crypto trader or run your crypto adventures through your business bank accounts, this isn't going to be the bank for you.

If you use your personal account for business, this breaches their terms and conditions and they might close your account.

First transactions

The spokesperson explained to us that, “Our systems are learning systems.” So it works out as it goes along what are “bad” places to transfer your money to from an ING account. These bad accounts will be banned, however the exchanges that crims use are not banned.

Also sometimes ING customers can get crypto transactions flagged and stopped, but usually once they work out who you are and what you are doing, they release the transfer.

The ING spokesperson told CoinJar, “We're not going to dictate to you how you use your accounts unless it goes against our terms and conditions.”

If you want to sign up to ING, you can do it all online, as they don’t have physical branches.

NAB

National Australia Bank is crypto-friendly, in CoinJar’s opinion.

During a conversation with an NAB representative, CoinJar found that while NAB does block certain crypto exchanges associated with scam activity, they are receptive to legitimate, registered exchanges like CoinJar.

The spokesperson informed CoinJar, “With regards to crypto exchanges we don’t work with, Kraken is not permitted, and the same goes for Binance. CoinJar, Coinspot, Swyftx and Coinbase are all okay. This is not an exhaustive list, however.”

How much money can you transfer from your NAB bank account to an approved crypto exchange? According to the spokesperson, “$40,000 a day. I will just caveat that initially, you may be flagged for the first couple of transactions. We will have to have that conversation with you just to make sure everything's okay.”

After that, it should be plain sailing.

Security and NAB

A statement on the NAB website says, “Scammers often use cryptocurrency exchanges that may not be effectively regulated, transactions are harder to trace and recover, and they offer the ability to make money transfers to international and domestic destinations very quickly.”

So what happens if you’re an NAB customer attempting to transfer funds from your NAB account to a blocked crypto exchange like Binance? If you use your NAB Visa credit or debit card or PayID for such a transaction, it will be declined. You’ll see it listed in your payment history as ‘Rejected.’

However, there’s a silver lining: If you wish to withdraw money from any blocked crypto exchange and deposit it into your NAB account, you can still do so — even if certain exchanges are restricted for depositing transfers.

Crypto-unfriendly banks in Australia

Here are the banks that give us a sad face.

Westpac

According to Westpac’s representative, you can’t deposit funds from Westpac to crypto exchanges at all. Well, that’s what they told us.

But it appears that banks officially state one thing while their actions suggest another. This phenomenon isn’t unique to a single bank in Australia; it’s widespread.

For instance, during an extensive conversation with a Westpac spokesperson, we were informed that transactions from Westpac accounts to crypto exchanges would not be processed.

However, our subsequent interactions with Westpac ourselves revealed a different story. Many of us had no trouble transferring even substantial sums — up to $50,000 — to crypto exchanges. The situation seems somewhat perplexing.

In our own testing, we deposited approximately $200 from a Westpac account to CoinJar without any issues. The transaction went smoothly and reflected in our CoinJar account. However, when we attempted a $30,000 transfer to a different exchange, the Westpac fraud team promptly contacted us.

Interestingly, long-time users of both Westpac and CoinJar reported that they frequently deposit funds from their Westpac accounts to CoinJar without encountering phone calls or transaction blocks. It appears that the official stance and actual functionality may not align perfectly.

Westpac also appeared to treat all crypto exchanges equally, without distinguishing between questionable overseas exchanges and locally-based exchanges registered with AUSTRAC.

Unlike some other banks — for instance, ANZ, which has blocked Binance but not other locally-registered exchanges — Westpac seems to have implemented a blanket ban on all crypto exchanges.

Either way, because of Westpac's public stance that customers can’t deposit AUD into crypto exchanges, we are putting them in the crypto-unfriendly category.

Commonwealth Bank

The Commonwealth Bank have recently become a very crypto-unfriendly bank.

The reason the Commonwealth Bank may not be the best choice for people who want to buy and sell crypto is due to the recent updates in their policies. They now impose limitations on payments to cryptocurrency exchanges.

Specifically, CBA has capped transfers at $10,000 per calendar month per account. If individuals intend to move more significant amounts onto a crypto exchange, the Commonwealth Bank’s policy might not align with their needs.

Macquarie Bank

This bank gets a big “L” in terms of crypto friendliness. Macquarie Bank's spokesperson said they don’t allow any customer to transfer any money onto any crypto exchange, ever.

While this is their official line, we also know people who have accounts at Macquarie Bank and they say they deposit onto crypto exchanges all the time and they don’t have problems.

So again, it seems like the public stance of the bank is different from reality. Even so, they still make the cut as the most crypto-unfriendly bank in our list, simply because of their public stance against crypto.