London — On Monday, Lloyds Banking Group joined major US banks in banning purchases of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies via credit card amid debt and security concerns. A Lloyds spokesperson said the ban was across its Lloyd Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA-branded credit cards. In a brief statement, he said the group did "not accept credit card transactions involving the purchase of cryptocurrencies". Over the past few days, US lenders Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan each introduced the same ban. There is concern that customers who bought bitcoin late in 2017, when cryptocurrencies in general surged in value, have been left with big losses following massive declines in recent weeks. On Monday, the price of bitcoin tumbled to $7,950, two months after breaking through the $20,000 mark. It comes as China plans to stamp out all remaining cryptocurrency trading in the country by blocking access to overseas-based websites and removing related applications from app store...
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