In a letter to Japanese clients, Kraken has communicated that it is undertaking some bank account changes. Citing “a variety of circumstances”, the company is closing its SWIFT bank accounts in USD, EUR, and GBP. In addition, JPY funding accounts at Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui are to cease accepting funds.

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The company insists that its SEPA Euro funding accounts and cryptocurrency deposits will not be affected. Changes to the existing accounts of the company will take place in the second half of March. The letter outlines that the SWIFT funding accounts will be closed on the 21st, next month.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Kraken will process all of the deposits that are received by midnight on the 20th of March 2018. Funds that have been processed after that date will automatically be returned to sender. Any withdrawal requests that are made by the 27th of March, 2018 will be processed on the next day.

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Clients will not be able to withdraw USD, EUR, and GBP via SWIFT bank accounts, while domestic JPY withdrawals will not be processed and will be instead returned to the balance of the clients on the exchange.

In its letter, the exchange said: “While this is a disappointing development, we are dedicating further resources to our banking relationships and the implementation of new funding methods. We will reach out to you again when we have further details to share.”

Crypto Industry Facing Banking Challenges

The changes seem to follow up on the challenges that the cryptocurrency industry has been facing when dealing with traditional banks. The regulatory framework which the Japanese government has outlined in recent years has been focusing on the AML aspect of the new technology.

Exchanges have been vocal about protecting the privacy of their clients, but that didn’t stop the US government from obtaining certain information about clients of Coinbase. Back in December, Bulgarian banks shut down access to the bank accounts of a number of local websites that are dealing with cryptocurrencies.