LONDON, Sept 26 Reuters JPMorgan39;s British retail bank Chase will ban crypto transactions made by customers from Oct. 16 due to an increase in fraud and scams, the company said on Tuesday.

We39;ve seen an increase in the number of crypto scams targeting UK consumers, so we have taken the decision to prevent the purchase of crypto assets on a Chase debit card or by transferring money to a crypto site from a Chase account, a spokesperson for the bank said.

Chase has become the latest lender in the UK to restrict customers39; access to crypto amid longrunning concerns over its use in online scams run by criminals.

JPMorgan has attracted more than 1.6 million customers to its Chase retail bank since launching the mobile appbased service in Britain two years ago, and plans to roll out the consumer bank in other international markets over time.

Chase informed customers of its planned policy change by email on Tuesday morning, the bank confirmed. Crypto media outlet Coindesk reported the move earlier on Tuesday.

In March, NatWest NWG.L imposed new limits on the daily and monthly amount customers can send to crypto exchanges, seeking to protect consumers from cryptocriminals.

Spain39;s Santander said last year it would block UK customers from sending realtime payments to crypto exchanges as part of measures to protect customers from scams.

Reporting by Iain Withers and Tom Wilson; Editing by Susan Fenton and Christina Fincher

Source Reuters