This week, Santander Bank's Portuguese unit decided to take a step against cryptocurrencies. The Portuguese unit, earlier this week, allegedly stopped allowing transactions involving cryptocurrencies. The financial institution reportedly said that the reason why it was blocking transactions was linked to the fact that these were non-regulated financial products.

The transactions that were said to be blocked involved transactions made by cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Bitstamp and Coinbase. Local media reported that according to a company employee, the local unit, Banco Santander Totta, actually had in place a directive that banned such transactions.

Santander's Portuguese unit says cryptocurrency transactions will not be banned

Of course, the bank's decision was not appreciated at all by many of its clients, so many people decided to close their bank accounts at Banco Santander Totta and open new accounts at other banks. However, that is not all.

Some customers started a petition against the bank, which would finally be send to the country's parliament, accusing Banco Santander Totta of trying to keep "Portugal in the middle ages" and acting against the interest of its clients.

Local media also reported that some customers even went to file complaints with the DECO, which is the country's consumer protection organization. The DECO responded to the backlash with a statement against the company. The DECO said that the bank had "no known legal basis" to make this decision and block transactions involving cryptocurrencies.

After the DECO's statement and the criticism from customers, Banco Santander Totta finally decided to issue a clarification on the case. In a press release to local media, the bank said that it has not adopted any measures against cryptocurrencies.