Portuguese Santander Branch has taken a step back and re-thought the idea of letting individuals handle BTC related transactions through the bank after being impacted by a significant backlash over the previous chosen action [blocking BTC transfers].
As it is known, banks do attempt to prevent users from trading Bitcoin while using different methods like declaring out that trading could lead to loss of your share, not a regulated market or even blocking the whole transfers. This situation has become a global phenomenon in the past few years. Santander has its fame set throughout the community for being more open and attracted towards the blockchain technology lately. But, branches of course can have their own saying what is taking place in their house. One Portuguese branch did terminate and activity towards Bitcoin, especially hitting harder those that involve Bitstamp and Coinbase.
Customers were not too happy about what the bank had chosen to do so they decided to put together a petition that gathered more than 1,000 signatures. As such, the Portuguese parliament was forced to review this petition and pass it along. The petition claims how Santander was deviating the country outside the financial innovation wave that is taking up the globe. It looked like these words did hit bulls-eye with the members of parliament. After all, the bank branch quickly changed its mind in this regard.
With this change now in effect, things are looking up. The local branch will no longer block any Bitcoin-related transactions whatsoever. Users can send money to both Bitstamp and Coinbase without any delays or extra fees. It is a small victory for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Unfortunately, stories like these are very rare. It is equally possible the branch will revert this decision in a few months from now. For now, we should cherish this decision as long as it stands.
Despite the win, as mentioned in the beginning obviously banks will continue to have an against-side of idea on BTC. These developments are not even taken kindly by major banks and for various reasons, they choose to believe that the user should not buy or sell Bitcoin as they do not know what they are doing. However, it should be up to the user to choose what to invest in/buy or sell.