Binance to lose its British pound on- and off-ramp provider in 9 weeks

Binance is scrambling to find a new service partner to process British pound transfers on its trading platform after its current partner, Skrill Limited, announced it would soon cease providing services to the crypto exchange. 

Binance explained in a March 13 email to “Binancians” that Skrill would stop processing pound deposits and withdrawals via bank transfer with its “Faster Payments Service” and card on May 22.

“We regret to inform you that our GBP fiat partner, Skrill Limited, has informed us that it will stop offering GBP fiat services, namely deposits and withdrawals via Faster Payments and card, to Binance users,” the statement read.

The trading platform added that they are “working hard to find an alternative provider” to provide Britis pound on- and off-ramp services to users as soon as possible.

It has about nine weeks to find an alternative before Skrill terminates its services.

Binance however confirmed that the change would not impact Binance Accounts or any Binance.com products or services.

A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph that pound transfers were suspended on March 13 for new users and that users will still be able to access their pound balances in the meantime:

“This change affects less than 1% of Binance users. However, we know that these services are valued by our users and our team is working hard to find an alternative solution for them.”

“In the meantime, all methods of depositing and withdrawing other fiat currencies as well as buying and selling crypto on Binance.com remain unaffected, including bank transfer using one of the other fiat currencies supported by Binance, and buying and selling crypto directly via credit or debit card,” the spokesperson added.

This isn’t the only service provider dilemma that Binance has dealt with of late either.

Binance temporarily suspended USD bank transfers on Feb. 8 but did not provide an explanation as to why saying just that it would work to restart the feature as soon as possible. At the time, the halt did not apply to the U.S.-based independent entity, Binance.US.

On Jan. 21, Binance also announced that its primary banking partner — reportedly now-shuttered Signature Bank — would ban U.S. dollar transfers below $100,000 on the trading platform. This service ceased on Feb. 1.

Related: Binance banking problems highlight a divide between crypto firms and banks

Binance then announced on Jan. 23 that Binance users from 143 countries would no longer have access to the SWIFT U.S. dollar bank deposit and withdrawal channel at all.

The United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France and Germany were some of the few countries that made the cut.

Cointelegraph reached out to Paysafe, the parent company of Skrill, but did not receive an immediate response.