Bitcoin Forum

Unexpectedly: criticism of Bitcoin in Sweden

Nordea Bank AB took up arms against the Crypto-currency.
Bloomberg reports that the largest Nordea bank in Sweden and the whole of Northern Europe sent a memorandum to its employees with a ban on trading Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies.

Unexplained, but true: Bitcoin in Sweden is not loved by everyone!
Nordea Bank AB has imposed a ban on operations with crypto-currencies after the bank's board reached a conclusion about the unregulated nature of the crypto-currency market. However, Nordea stated that the bank's updated policy includes transitional provisions for personnel with existing crypto-currency reserves and "permits certain exceptions". In other words, employees who already own Bitcoin are allowed to keep their savings in a crypto-currency form.

More (https://freedman.club/en/neozhidanno-kritika-bitcoin-v-shvecii/#hcq=4YaDtHq)

That's not unexpected if a bank is against crypto, especially bitcoin. Especially, if the bank enables it's customers to buy crypto related derivatives. Now it's interesting the idea behind, why the bank bans the employees to trade cryptos, but allow the customers...
You can find useful posts about the topic in this thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2804977.0;topicseen (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2804977.0;topicseen)
We need to wait a bit to clarify the real effect of the ban, but it's not unexpected yet that banks will behave like this, unfortunately...

Can they enforce this legally?

I would expect they could get into a large legal battle over this if any staff wanted to take it further.

Somehow whole world is becoming against the crypto and the bitcoins. Thats pretty disgusting to me.

That's a worldwide phenomenon followed by central banks against cryptos.Bitcoin is treated by them as their main rival and that's why,they act this way.

I doubt it could be enforced outside of company premises. Blocking access to exchange sites and other Bitcoin-related web pages is easy enough. Past that, it seems like an "honor system" situation that is unlikely to be enforced.

When framed as a company ethics/code of conduct policy, I could see it being legal. But who knows? I'm certainly not familiar with Swedish law. I would also bet that there would be legal challenges if Nordea ever terminated employees over this.

Interestingly, Nordea's regulator indicates that it won't be weighing in on the matter (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-22/nordea-bans-employees-from-trading-bitcoin-spokeswoman-says):

Not surprising a bank is doing this right now.

They're preventing their employees from being involved in it.  They want to protect the reputation of the bank and their employees because it's not a "regulated industry" yet and if something did happen and they won't be associated with the losses.  

No surprise that anyone who wants to bash Bitcoin and crypto generally is going to jump on the bandwagon when the price is not looking that rosey. We will have the last laugh when they are left sitting at the station, I am patient and you should be too - leave the haters hate and hang in there people, its been a tough few days, but long term - you are in the right place.

Yes, this is totally surreal from a legal point of view, it is like to forbid employees to collect... stamps, or old photos, or historic cars... especially ad Bitcoin is NOT considered as money. This intrusion in the personal sphere is ridiculous and criminal at the same time.

When in fact if the bank or government that can think, definitely crypto currency can be managed in such a way, but maybe for now this still has not found the way. We'll see gold, gold is something that is obtained by way of mined like bitcoin, if gold price can be managed, why bitcoin can not.

I would be surprised if banksters would say something positive about Bitcoin. Sometimes they can say good words about Blockchain technology, but also they like to spread FUD about BTC.
But this decision of Nordea bank looks extremely stupid. How can bank forbid things which aren't directly related to employes job? Not sure it's Sweden or North Korea. It's ridiculous.
And in general, I hate Swedish and Scandinavian banks. All their banks like Swedbank, SEB, Nordea, DNB and others are against Bitcoin. But since they have monopoly in my country, I don't have any alternatives and I forced to use one of these banks.

I used to think, why every bank in this world can not provide space for crypto. If they want to think together for the development of the world, especially the economy. they should be able to synergize.

I don't think crypto trading is irresponsible. It has to be done in moderation, just like everything in life. You don't have to blow your life savings on it. It's sad, but Nordea probably sees things the same way you do. ...Or they just don't want crypto to thrive, which isn't unusual for a banking institution. My money is on the latter. Where their employees put their money should be none of their business anyway for as long as they're operating within the confines of the law, which they are.

Earlier there was information that Sweden had taken a course to completely displace the usual currency and switch to financial calculations exclusively in the crypto currency. Therefore, I am surprised at the decision of a large bank of this country. Although if the state has not yet settled these relations, the banks will not take responsibility and it is easier for them to be reinsured against the background of a loss of confidence before bitcoin and a lowering of its rate. In addition, banks are not at all interested in developing the crypto currency, it is a rival for banks.

If it was anything other than Banks, I would have been surprised.... but Banks see Bitcoin as being their competition and also

a disruptive technology for their business, so I did not expect anything else from them. You had the same thing in Australia

for a while, until the citizens brought a lawsuit against them for non-competitive behaviour.. then they were forced to stop.

These people should contest this in court.  >:(

The popularity of bitcoin in the world can change the point of vue in Sweden and the others country who ban btc it is a question of time and bitcoin be legal in all the country of the world

you better Cut it out! thread like this has been there before. questions like this yourself can also answer it, if you are sure to join in the world of crypto use your beliefs. look at the current situation if this is good for investment, invest it but if you are unsure of the situation you can wait. actually you want to do something but not sure so you ask it, seoalah if you are looking for decisions from others through opinions. I think it's better you make a decision with your beliefs so you can be confident when doing something and will always be ready to take risks and profits to come.

Well I don't think that criticism form banks against Bitcoin is unexpected, on the contrary. They see BTC as competitors, so of course they disapprove it.

It doesn't make any sense on this platform, It might be a good news for us those who are believe in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Since this virtual platform is going to be popular platform in this monetary world that's why this conventional banking system are getting afraid of its popularity.
So never get tensed about this criticism anymore, Decision should be taken based on your experience and future prediction about this system.

They disapprove of it sure but that doesn't mean you can't incorporate it into your business. Don't you think video stores of the past would have embraced some technology change knowing they would be obsolete by Netflix and video-on-demand services? If banks can look 20 years into the future and see what will become, I think they would all adopt Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in a heartbeat. Too bad nobody has that crystal ball though :-\.

I am positive they can. This is common for companies to regulate borderline cases, which are not illegal, but undesired, like gift-giving (on a border with bribery) or possessing stock or securities (being on a border with insider trading) and others like addressing cases of conflicting interests etc. They usually do that in a form of a code-of-conduct document. I am sure this is simply such a case. I wouldn't be reading to much into this news. It is just a company policy and that's it.

anyone who wants to bits Bitcoin and crypto will generally plunge into music when the price is not visible rosey it. We will laugh the last time they sit at the station, I'm patient and you should be too - let haters hate and survive there people, some difficult days, but for a long time -

Is that legal? Can an employer tell an employee what to do with their own money

read my post 2 posts above mate.... I think they can. This is legal. It is called a company code-of-conduct and regulates grey and borderline cases. Read my post

lets not take this out of context as that is what we do in a lot of situations , the issue as stated her is not that they are against bitcoins  what they have the issue with is the fact that its currently unregulated.What kind of regulation they would want to feel comfortable is left to be seen ,however  you don't expect a king to give up his throne without a fight now do we ?

From all other countries, in Sweden that wanted to push out the cash money to digital form, we see this kind of behavior.
Reasons could be in the bank itself. They could be protecting their self against crypto or don't want to deal with unregulated stuff.
Either way they invested a lot of money to push out most of the cash flow to electronic state.

Maybe you pinned the real cause. Look, from what I am hearing, in Sweden they have a very deep penetration of services provided by credit card giants: even the beggars and homeless people have the card terminals, and people look at you really strange if you attempt to pay cash even to buy everyday things. So they have an even bigger incentive to oppose bitcoin than in other countries.

Look - for banks and their friends (visa or mastercard) it is not the share of market they will gain or not, like in other countries. They have already eliminated cash. It is rather a share of market they will lose if bitcoin wins. And losing is more painful than not gaining.

Holy molly!! I couldn't expect something like that from the Scandinavian country...They always the first, who introduce new technologies