December 8 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's First Investment Bank (Fibank) [BUL:5F4] said on Friday it could no longer service operations involving cryptocurrencies, because many of its correspondent banks deny such transactions.
"A large part of the correspondent banks, such as JP Morgan Chase, Commerzbank, and a number of other banks working with Fibank, refuse to accept transfers for the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies. In this respect, Fibank cannot continue to provide services to traders of cryptocurrencies," the bank said in a statement on its website.
On Thursday, two Bulgarian cryptocurrency exchange websites said that Fibank has blocked their accounts and terminated their contracts. Both operators said they were working to resolve the issue as they are unable to offer most or all of their services after the termination of the contracts.
Fibank was Bulgaria's third largest bank by assets as of end-October 2017, according to central bank data.
Fibank shares traded 0.94% lower at 5.250 levs ($3.15/2.68 euro) on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange as of 13:05 CET on Friday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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