Nordea Bank Forbid Its Employees To Trade Bitcoin And Other Crypto

Nordea Bank forbids its employees to trade in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as per the Danish court decision which granted the right to the bank. The bank also will have the right to issue new guidelines on owning and trading cryptocurrency even during time off work as we are about to see in the coming crypto news.

Cryptocurrencies are known to be risky business and usually, risks justify restrictions according to the Copenhagen court. The lawsuit originated with Denmark’s Union for financial industry employees and the reason was that a ban on owning crypto coins was interfering with the employee’s personal lives. The Union’s chairman Kent Petersen said:

‘’It was important for us and our members to establish what rights managers have. In this case, it was more far-reaching than what we find to be appropriate.’’

The bank believes that by investing in bitcoin, it could damage the employee’s reputation and owning bitcoin is really breaking the rules of the Nordea Bank. The bank also warned the workers that the bitcoin market is unregulated and there is a strong possibility of criminal activities. Nordea Bank itself, however, offered derivative financial instruments based on the crypto assets but only reserved for special clients. Employees could invest in those products but now own actual coins. The bank itself has launched a blockchain-based payment platform allowing cross-border remittances for small businesses.

The Nordea Bank ban was launched in January 2018 right when the BTC bull market started and this time the bank has justifications based on a court ruling. Since the ban, the cryptocurrency has gone through one of the longest bear markets and reached a 400% rally in the first six months of the year. The coin could have also hurt the personal finance of employees but it could also have led to immense gains.

Right now, it is uncertain how the bank would check for crypto asset ownership and holding BTC coins could even be as simple as memorizing or writing a seed phrase. Even more, paradoxically, Nordea Bank has been caught in the crossfire with a money-laundering scandal and the bank worked with the Baltic bank partners which led to the handling of tainted funds.