According to Israel’s Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, that the banking institutions from now onwards, they cannot deny banking supports to Cryptocurrency firms with the alibi that Crypto firms are associated with laundering and illicit financial activities. Instead, the banks should adopt the appropriate approaches for examining and monitoring each case that indicates chances of money laundering and other illicit financial activities.
Mandelblit, made the remarks at the Tel Aviv District Court, where the central banks of Israel made a stance, that banks can legally refuse banking services to Bitcoin companies. The stance followed a dispute between Bits of gold and Bank Leumi. Bank Leumi dropped Bits of Gold, the Bitcoin exchange as a client, even though the exchange complied with all the AML and KYC requirements. This did not go well for Bits of Gild and they eventually filed a case on paper against Bank Leumi, to which the Tel Aviv District Court gave the verdict that the Israeli banks are legally allowed to refuse services to Bitcoin companies owing to the proprietary cybersecurity issues.
Following this verdict, by the court, several Israeli banks froze the accounts of those customers who received transfers from Crypto Firms during 2019. This left the Israeli Bitcoin investors in a state of mammoth uncertainties because they were unable to pay their taxes because no banks were accepting their deposits. Some cases were filed in the Tel Aviv District Court, where the Bitcoin investors were suing Israeli banks. A similar case happened when the Mercantile Discount Bank refused sign off on a transfer from a local cryptocurrency exchange named BIT2C. Mandelblit’s position was filed in this case, and he won support of several state agencies. Most of them agreed to the fact that instead of flocking the entire clan of Crypto firms under one roof and denying them banking services, the banks should identify the source of such threats specifically and try to combat those by preventive measures.
