UK Parliament Launches Inquiry Into Banks Restricting Crypto Firms

Key Points

• A cross-party group of MPs and peers has opened a parliamentary inquiry into whether UK banks are unfairly restricting crypto businesses’ access to banking services.
• The Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) announced the inquiry on Tuesday, 21 July.
• The review will examine account closures, refusals to open accounts, payment blocks and transfer limits imposed by banks on crypto firms and their customers.
• Major UK banks named in reporting on the issue include HSBC, NatWest, Santander, Nationwide and Starling Bank.
• Industry research cited around the inquiry suggests roughly 40% of attempted transfers from UK bank accounts to crypto exchanges have been blocked or delayed.
• The APPG is co-chaired by Labour MP Gurinder Singh Josan CBE and Lord Vaizey of Didcot, a former digital economy minister.
• A six-week call for evidence is open to banks, payment providers, crypto firms, regulators, trade bodies and consumer groups, running until 31 August.
• The inquiry follows the UK’s recent completion of its long-awaited crypto regulatory framework.
• Findings and recommendations from the inquiry will be presented to Parliament and the Government, though the APPG has no direct legislative power.

Westminster (Britain Today News) July 21, 2026 – A cross-party group of UK lawmakers has opened a parliamentary inquiry into the banking difficulties faced by cryptocurrency businesses, examining whether banks are unfairly restricting the sector’s access to financial services and undermining Britain’s ambitions to become a global hub for digital assets. MPs and peers from across the political spectrum have begun gathering evidence on how UK banks treat crypto firms and their customers, after years of complaints that legitimate businesses in the sector have struggled to open or keep bank accounts. The inquiry, launched by the Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), will look at reported account closures, payment blocks and transfer limits, and comes only weeks after the UK finalised its long-awaited crypto regulatory framework. Lawmakers say they want to establish whether banking practices are keeping pace with the Government’s stated goal of positioning the UK as a leading centre for digital-asset innovation.

What is the new parliamentary inquiry into crypto banking?

The APPG for Crypto and Digital Assets has opened a formal call for evidence into what it describes as a “banking chokepoint” facing the sector. The group wants to determine the scale of the problem, its causes, and possible remedies, before compiling a report of findings and recommendations for the Government. Although the APPG sits outside the formal legislative process and cannot pass laws itself, such groups regularly shape parliamentary debate and can influence how ministers and regulators approach a given issue.

The inquiry will run as a six-week written call for evidence, inviting submissions of no more than a few pages from anyone able to speak to the issue, including banks, payment service providers, fintech companies, crypto businesses, trade associations, regulators, academics, legal experts and consumer groups.

Why has Parliament launched this investigation now?

The timing follows closely on the heels of the UK completing its regulatory framework for crypto assets, a process that has taken several years and involved the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Bank of England and HM Treasury. With a clearer rulebook now largely in place, lawmakers and industry figures are turning their attention to a separate, longstanding complaint: that even fully regulated crypto firms cannot always secure the basic banking relationships that other regulated businesses take for granted.

The Government has repeatedly said it wants Britain to become a global centre for digital-asset innovation and tokenised finance. The APPG’s inquiry effectively asks whether that ambition is being undercut by banks’ own risk decisions, regardless of how clear the wider regulatory environment becomes.

What banking issues will the inquiry examine?

The review is expected to focus on two connected problems. The first is access to bank accounts and banking-adjacent services, including insurance, for crypto and digital-asset businesses themselves. The second is restrictions placed on crypto-related payments made by individual customers and businesses, such as blocked transfers to exchanges or daily and monthly transfer limits.

Lawmakers say they want to understand how these restrictions are applied in practice, whether they are proportionate to the risks banks are seeking to manage, and what effect they have on consumers, businesses, competition and innovation. The inquiry is also expected to look at examples of good practice, both domestically and in other jurisdictions, and to consider what solutions might improve access to banking while preserving safeguards against fraud and financial crime.

Which UK banks have restricted crypto-related payments?

Several of the country’s largest banking groups have introduced controls on crypto transactions in recent years. Reporting on the issue has named HSBC, NatWest, Santander, Nationwide and Starling Bank among those that have applied measures ranging from outright payment blocks to daily transfer limits on transactions linked to cryptocurrency exchanges. The banks have generally defended these controls as necessary responses to fraud, scams and money-laundering risks associated with certain crypto activity, rather than as a blanket rejection of the sector.

How widespread is the problem of blocked or delayed transfers?

Industry research referenced in connection with the inquiry suggests the issue is far from marginal. Figures cited put the proportion of attempted transfers from UK bank accounts to crypto exchanges that are blocked or delayed by banks at around 40%. Separate industry surveys have also suggested that a majority of exchanges operating in the UK believe such restrictions are holding back investment, expansion or hiring. Crypto businesses argue that this level of friction penalises regulated, compliant firms just as much as it does higher-risk operators, and that clearer regulation ought to make it easier, not harder, for banks to distinguish between the two.

Who leads the Crypto and Digital Assets APPG?

The group is jointly chaired by Labour MP Gurinder Singh Josan CBE and Lord Vaizey of Didcot, a Conservative member of the House of Lords and former UK Government Minister for the Digital Economy. The APPG was relaunched as a cross-party forum for parliamentarians to engage with the crypto and digital-asset sector, and it published a previous inquiry report in 2023 that also flagged banking access as a significant barrier facing the industry. Its work is supported by CryptoUK, an industry body representing crypto businesses operating in Britain, though the group’s findings and recommendations are its own and are directed at Parliament and the Government rather than at any single trade association.

What has the APPG said about launching the inquiry?

Announcing the review, the APPG said it had heard consistent reports over a number of years from crypto and digital-asset businesses describing difficulties accessing bank accounts and banking services, alongside concerns about restrictions on crypto-related transactions. Lord Vaizey of Didcot, the group’s co-chair, described the pattern in direct terms, saying the APPG had

“heard consistent reports… that they face difficulties accessing bank accounts and banking services.”

His comments frame the inquiry as a response to a problem lawmakers believe has persisted for years rather than a sudden or isolated concern.

How will the inquiry gather evidence, and who can take part?

The call for evidence is open broadly across the financial and crypto sectors. Banks, payment companies, fintech firms, crypto businesses, trade bodies, regulators, academics, legal experts and consumer groups have all been invited to make written submissions. Respondents are being asked to address questions covering the scale of the banking access problem, its practical impact on businesses and consumers, its underlying causes, how the UK compares with other jurisdictions, and what remedies might be appropriate. The evidence window opened on 21 July and is due to close on 31 August, after which the APPG will review submissions and prepare its report.

What do banks say in their own defence?

Banks have consistently maintained that their approach to crypto-related transactions is driven by genuine risk-management concerns rather than hostility to the sector as a whole. Financial institutions point to elevated levels of fraud and scams connected to certain crypto activities, particularly involving retail investors, and say many of their controls have been introduced or strengthened in response to warnings from regulators about consumer harm. From this perspective, transfer limits and enhanced checks are framed as proportionate safeguards rather than as an attempt to shut legitimate businesses out of the banking system.

Crypto firms counter that such measures often apply indiscriminately, catching regulated and compliant businesses in the same net as higher-risk actors. They argue that as the UK’s regulatory framework matures, banks should be better placed to distinguish licensed, supervised firms from those operating outside the rules, rather than relying on broad restrictions that treat the whole sector with the same level of suspicion.

Is this part of a wider “debanking” debate?

The UK inquiry sits within a broader international conversation about so-called debanking, in which businesses in emerging or higher-risk sectors say they are denied ordinary banking services despite operating lawfully. The issue has drawn particular attention in the United States, where crypto firms and individuals have reported systematic account closures in recent years. While the APPG’s inquiry is focused specifically on the UK market, its framing echoes concerns raised elsewhere: that banks’ internal risk appetites, rather than formal regulatory prohibition, can end up determining which lawful businesses are able to operate.

HM Treasury has previously acknowledged the broader problem, indicating that regulated firms should not be excluded from banking services simply because they operate in the crypto sector. The extent to which that principle is being applied consistently across the banking industry is now one of the questions the APPG’s inquiry has been set up to answer.
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What could this mean for the UK’s digital-asset ambitions?

Ministers have repeatedly stated their intention to make the UK a leading jurisdiction for crypto assets and tokenised finance, a goal that depends on more than regulatory clarity alone. Without reliable access to banking infrastructure, licensed firms may struggle to operate day-to-day, and retail customers may continue to face friction when trying to move money to and from regulated platforms. By examining the relationship between banks and the crypto sector directly, the APPG’s inquiry is aimed at establishing whether current banking practices strike an appropriate balance between protecting consumers and supporting the growth the Government says it wants to see.

What happens after the call for evidence closes?

Once the six-week evidence-gathering period ends on 31 August, the APPG is expected to review the submissions it receives and compile a report setting out its findings and recommendations. That report will be presented to Parliament and the Government, in line with the approach taken by the group’s earlier 2023 inquiry. While the APPG cannot compel banks or regulators to act, its previous work has fed into wider policy discussions, and its recommendations are likely to be closely watched by both the banking industry and crypto businesses awaiting clearer guidance on how the two sectors should work together.