Britons Filed Over 10,000 Complaints About Crypto Transfer Blockages

From May to August 2026, Britons submitted 10,092 complaints about banks obstructing transfers to crypto platforms. Through the Stand With Crypto organization’s service, 9,803 people filed complaints. The majority of grievances were directed at Lloyds Banking Group (2,297), Barclays (1,569), and NatWest (1,278). Together, these three groups attracted 5,144 complaints – about 51% of all submissions. HSBC UK received over 1,000 complaints, Virgin Money – 103, Co-operative Bank – 76. Complaints came from all 650 parliamentary constituencies.

Lloyds Banking Group includes customers of Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland. The campaign paid special attention to it: as of August 28, the bank's published policies did not include stated restrictions on crypto transfers. Meanwhile, Revolut, also on the list without public restrictions, indicates some crypto exchanges as unsupported in its own guide.

Banks publishing limits allow transfers up to £2,500 per transaction with a limit of £10,000 over 30 days (Barclays and HSBC UK). NatWest allows £1,000 per day and £5,000 over 30 days, while Santander UK has a cap of £1,000 per transaction and £3,000 per month. Starling Bank, Chase UK, TSB, Metro Bank, Virgin Money, and Co-operative Bank completely prohibit crypto payments. According to the campaign, banks with published limits accounted for 6,198 complaints (about 61%), providers without public restrictions – 2,842, banks with a full ban – 989, and another 63 complaints did not fall into these categories.

Barclays defends the restrictions as a measure to protect clients from crypto fraud and financial losses: banks are responsible for assessing fraud and financial crime risks when processing payments. Stand With Crypto insists that blanket bans also affect legitimate purchases through companies registered with the FCA. Katie Harris, head of European policy at Coinbase, believes banks should assess individual payments rather than apply restrictions to the entire industry. The campaign also called on the FCA and HM Treasury to clarify when industry-wide restrictions can be justified by anti-fraud and financial crime requirements.

An important caveat: complaints are self-submitted reports, not verified statistics of rejections. The figures do not prove that Lloyds blocks a larger share of crypto payments than competitors: the sample is not adjusted for the customer base and transaction volume of banks. The report also did not measure how many purchase attempts were successful, how many rejections were due to suspected fraud, and what share of complaints banks satisfied.