No More Bitcoin for Nordea Bank Employees, Experts Question the Motive

An act of paternalism or a case of generic Bitcoin distrust? It is hard to make out the exact reasons for Nordea Bank's ban on its 31,500 employees trading in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies - even on their own time - a prohibition that was upheld on Dec. 2 by a Danish court.

In a press release posted by the court following its ruling, Nordea Bank noted that, "Employees are permitted to keep any existing [crypto] holdings," though it added that they were encouraged to sell them.

In some cases, the victim may turn to the bank to hold them liable for the acts of their employees.

"This should have no effect on the job. However, it may be that private activities do have negative consequences for the job. It is the impact on the job that matters, e.g., if a bank employee is arrested for financial fraud in private matters it may have a negative impact on the confidence of the clients."

In June, Nordea Bank Danmark A/S announced that its offices had been raided by Danish prosecutors under suspicion of money laundering.

Last week, some in the crypto community seemed to feel that Nordea's employees were paying for the bank's transgressions.

"Nordea has been connected to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of suspicious money flows. Would you say any employee working at the bank is directly or indirectly engaging in unethical or outright illegal activities simply by doing their daily task that keeps the bank running? The bank should focus on policing its own unethical or outright illegal activities first, then focus on its employees' actions outside of work."

"The crypto industry is lurching slowly toward greater regulation, oversight and transparency," Deutsch told Cointelegraph, so for the bank to argue that it needed to protect its employees and protect itself against an unregulated, opaque market doesn't really hold water.

This ban is impossible to enforce - a Nordea employee could buy crypto with cash or from an account outside of Nordea field of vision - "However, it will deter people," he said.

Overall, a benevolent reading of Nordea's controversial Bitcoin prohibition is that it is a bit clumsy and paternalistic - protecting its employees from themselves, as it were.