Banks cannot ignore bitcoin, warns Labor senator Sam Dastyari

Labor senator Sam Dastyari has warned Australian banks not to “act like a bunch of ostriches” with their “heads in the sand” when confronting the rise of bitcoins, as he urged companies to provide feedback to a Senate inquiry into how to regulate the highly volatile digital currency.
National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corp, ANZ Banking Group and Commonwealth Bank of Australia number among 74 organisations that have been approached by the inquiry’s committee, which is chaired by Senator Dastyari.
The list of companies, which was seen by Fairfax Media, also included the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Australian Federal Police, and international firms such as lobby group Bitcoin Foundation in the United States, and online payments behemoth PayPal.
“The fact is the banking sector can’t act like a bunch of ostriches and stick their heads in the sand and pretend these digital currencies aren’t a real thing that’s heading their way – it is,” Senator Dastyari told the Financial Review.
“Too often you find the banking sector has a tendency to try and pretend that change isn’t coming down the pipeline, in a bid to protect what is their own market position,” he argued.

This post was published at Sydney Morning Herald on October 15, 2014 –.