Australia's Largest Bank Closes Accounts of Bitcoin Processor

A little government pressure, perhaps

The Commonwealth Bank, Australia's largest bank, has close accounts belonging to Australian Bitcoin payment processor CoinJar.

CoinJar, which offers tools to buy or sell Bitcoins, and accept them as payment, has blogged about its experiences. The post says it has experienced some dodgy transactions, but no more than most e-commerce outfits.

Founder Asher Tan told The Reg the company handles around 100 transactions a day and that it has found fewer than ten fraudulent transactions, most for under $AUD100. Tan pointed out that CoinJar wears the cost of dodgy transactions.

He's therefore at a loss to explain why the bank stopped processing automatic payments for the business, then shut the business' accounts and those of Tan and his co-founder, causing considerable inconvenience along the way.