Mark Toohey is a commercial lawyer who has worked as general counsel in the media, telecommunications, software and IT industries. At Adroit Lawyers, his clients include bitcoin and blockchain firms that have had difficulties securing bank accounts.
In this opinion piece, Toohey discusses these issues, calling for both the banking industry and government to accept that digital disruption is inevitable in the finance and banking sectors. Sometimes we ask the wrong question and miss an important opportunity. The recent strident demands for an investigation into alleged collusion by Australian banks against bitcoin businesses was misdirected.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigation found the banks did not collude when they closed down the accounts of a number of a number of bitcoin businesses.
In fact, the ACCC found that one bank had decided not to deal with digital currency businesses back in 2011. Another bank made a similar decision in 2015. They also found that other banks are continuing to deal with bitcoin businesses on a case-by-case basis.
Allegations of collusion will always be difficult to prove. Assembling sufficient evidence to back such a serious claim is a hard task. That is the implicit nature of collusion – it is usually something hidden or off to the side.
In this instance, the facts cited by the ACCC don’t lend much support to allegations of collusion. Disruption threat
The banks do have a serious role to play. Any reasonable person accepts we live in a perilous era when preventing money laundering or terrorism financing is important.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) must be watchful and banks have a mandatory obligation to report and prevent any improper activity. Few would not wholeheartedly support those actions.On the other hand, there is no doubt the banking industry is threatened with massive disruption. Banks […]
