Crypto-friendly banks in Australia: each bank's limit on exchange payments

The short answer

Under the banks' Scam-Safe Accord, every Australian retail bank has committed to limiting payments to what it sees as high-risk channels, and crypto exchanges are the one most of them name. What differs is how far each bank goes:

• Two decline every payment to an exchange: HSBC and AMP Bank GO.
• Three of the big four cap them at $10,000 a month: CommBank and ANZ Plus now, and Westpac from 1 December 2026. Bankwest does the same.
• Two in the BOQ group cap them at $5,000 a month: ME Go and Virgin Money.
• The rest block exchanges they see as high-risk and publish no dollar limit: NAB, ING, Macquarie and others.

Here is what each bank says on its own pages, read on 29 October 2026:

No bank publishes a list of the exchanges it blocks. Most say "high-risk" or "some" exchanges. CommBank, Bankwest, ANZ Plus, ME and Virgin Money apply their limit to payments to any exchange they can identify, Australian ones included.

Westpac's limit from 1 December 2026

Westpac has blocked payments to some exchanges since a trial it announced in May 2023. From 1 December 2026 it adds a $10,000 cumulative monthly limit on payments it identifies as going to a crypto exchange:

• Across your Westpac accounts, by Online Banking, the Westpac App, debit card and credit card.
• Each joint holder has their own $10,000.
• No increases or exemptions are available.
• In branch: payments to exchanges won't be supported at all from that date.
• Withdrawals from an exchange into a Westpac account aren't changing.

The limit applies only to the exchanges Westpac has identified when the payment is made, and further payments "may be rejected" once it's reached. Westpac's page doesn't say whether St.George, BankSA and Bank of Melbourne will follow.

CommBank and Bankwest

CommBank limits payments to accounts it believes belong to crypto exchanges to $10,000 in total across all your accounts each calendar month:

• Joint accounts: each holder has their own $10,000, counted against their own total across all their accounts.
• Held payments: some payments to exchanges are held for up to 24 hours, whatever the amount.
• Scheduled payments: no new ones to exchanges. Those set up before 30 September 2026 carry on, but one cancelled can't be set up again. One-off payments are unaffected.
• No exemptions: CommBank says there is no way to apply for a higher limit.
• Money coming back: CommBank may also decline payments from an exchange "where we reasonably consider this necessary to manage any risk". It's the only bank here that says so.

The limit covers payments made in a branch, by phone or online.

Bankwest is part of the CommBank group and has the same $10,000 monthly limit, across all its accounts, joint and signatory accounts included. Payments over it are declined even when split into smaller ones, and some are held for 24 hours. Its credit cards can't be used to buy crypto at all. Withdrawals from an exchange to a Bankwest account are allowed.

ANZ and ANZ Plus

ANZ Plus blocks payments it believes go to crypto exchanges by default, through a setting called Crypto Protect:

1. With Crypto Protect turned off, payments to exchanges are allowed up to $10,000 a calendar month.
2. An unused limit doesn't roll over, and the limit can't be changed.
3. It covers your own and joint accounts and your card. Each joint holder has their own limit.
4. Payments from an exchange can still come in.

ANZ hasn't published a crypto rule for its older accounts (ANZ Access and the like). Suncorp Bank, which ANZ now owns, hasn't published one either.

NAB and ubank

Since 18 July 2023, NAB has declined payments to crypto exchanges it considers high-risk:

• Cards: NAB Visa debit and credit card payments show "Issuer Declined Transaction".
• Transfers and PayID: show as "Rejected" in the app.
• Trying again: a payment retried the same way is blocked again.
• Withdrawals from an exchange back to NAB are allowed.

NAB publishes no dollar limit and doesn't name the exchanges. ubank, part of the NAB group, declines PayID payments to some exchanges with the message "Couldn't find the PayID".

BOQ, ME and Virgin Money

BOQ owns ME and Virgin Money, and the three take two approaches:

ING, Macquarie, AMP and HSBC

Customer-owned and regional banks

Several customer-owned banks publish the same $10,000 monthly limit, and others block some exchanges:

Banks with no published rule

We found no crypto payment rule on the sites of Suncorp Bank, ANZ's older accounts, Up, Great Southern Bank, Heritage and People First Bank, St.George, BankSA, Bank of Melbourne, Hume Bank, Defence Bank, Police Bank, Unity Bank, Gateway Bank or IMB.

That doesn't mean their payments to exchanges go through freely. Under the Scam-Safe Accord every retail bank has committed to limiting payments to high-risk channels, crypto platforms included, and a bank can decline a payment without having published a rule.

What a declined payment looks like

Banks don't name the exchanges they block, so the first sign is usually the payment failing. What each bank says you'll see:

A blocked payment tried again the same way stays blocked at NAB, HSBC, BCU and P&N. CommBank, ANZ Plus, ME, Virgin Money and Westpac say their limits can't be raised.

Limits are per person, not per account

CommBank, ANZ Plus, BCU, P&N, Westpac, ME and Virgin Money count the limit across every account you hold with them. CommBank, ANZ Plus, BCU, P&N and Westpac give each joint holder a limit of their own. A second account with the same bank doesn't add a second limit.

Money coming back from an exchange

Most banks that publish a rule say withdrawals from an exchange are unaffected: Bankwest, ANZ Plus, Westpac, NAB, Macquarie, BOQ, ME, BCU, P&N, Bank Australia, Qudos, MyState and Beyond say so. CommBank is the exception: it may decline payments from an exchange too. An exchange can set its own limits on withdrawals either way.

Paying an exchange: what each way costs

Binance takes cards only, so it is the one exchange here with no free way to pay in. The card fee at each exchange that publishes one:

The card payments leaderboard ranks them on that fee. At ANZ Plus, ME Go and Virgin Money, and at Westpac from 1 December, a card payment counts towards the bank's limit.

A credit card carries a second cost. Many card issuers treat a crypto purchase as a cash advance, which usually means a cash advance fee and interest from the day it's made. Bankwest's cards can't be used for it at all, and Westpac's limit covers its credit cards from 1 December.

Paid in by PayID, what crypto costs you is the exchange's own fee on each buy, and that differs from one exchange to the next. The crypto exchange fees report tracks them month by month, and BankMate's compare page prices every exchange on what you buy, how often and how you pay:

Sources

Each bank's own page, read on 29 October 2026: CommBank, Bankwest, ANZ Plus, Westpac and its 2023 trial, NAB, ubank, ING, Macquarie, BOQ, ME and its ME Go limits, Virgin Money, AMP Bank GO, HSBC, BCU, P&N, Bank Australia, Qudos Bank, Regional Australia Bank, MyState (Auswide Bank), Beyond Bank, Bendigo, Newcastle Permanent, Greater Bank, and the Australian Banking Association's Scam-Safe Accord. Exchange fees from BankMate's own read of each exchange's fee page.