Amagi Metals, the precious metals furnisher, recently revealed that their current bank account with the San Francisco-based Bank of the West (BotW) is going to be closed in the middle of August. Why? Well… Because they accept Bitcoin as a payment method and the institution sees that as a risk.
“We have worked with BotW since 2011. In the last month they began requesting information about our business and claiming that we were a Money Service Business (MSB). However, we only accept Bitcoins as a payment method, we do not sell Bitcoins, nor do we exchange or ‘deal’ Bitcoins. In addition, we are compliant with AML/KYC and other regulations“, explained Amagi Metals in a public statement.
That makes absolutely no sense. If they don't sell Bitcoins, they expose them self to absolutely no risk.
As a matter of fact every other payment method they accept is far more risky.
I don't see this as real hostility from the bank though. This is probably just the work of some "desk hero" that just goggled Bitcoin saw the resent news and decided Bitcoin is bad.
We will see more of this soon.
