The U.K. banking group Lloyds has banned its customers from using their credit cards to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The move comes just a couple days after U.S. banks—from Bank of America and J.P Morgan to Citigroup, Discover and Capital One—told their customers not to buy virtual coins on credit.
“Across Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA, we do not accept credit card transactions involving the purchase of cryptocurrencies,” Lloyds Banking Group said in a statement.
According to The Telegraph, the ban will be enforced through the use of a blacklist of cryptocurrency sellers.
The bank is, in common with its American counterparts, concerned about people using its credit facilities to buy cryptocurrencies and then not being able to pay back the loan, due to rapid depreciation in the virtual currencies.
That depreciation is on full display at the moment and not being helped by big banks turning against bitcoin. However, regulatory crackdowns—most recently in China and India appear to be the prime causes of bitcoin’s current slide.
Facebook also caused jitters by banning ads promoting cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs) on the world’s largest social network.
At the time of writing, one bitcoin was worth around $7,720, representing a mighty fall since it neared $20,000 in early December.