Nordea Bank can legally prevent its employees from trading Cryptocurrencies

Nordea Bank and cryptocurrency
Nordea Bank and cryptocurrency

Nordea Bank now has the right to prevent its employees from trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies following a ruling by the Danish courts.

Per a verdict, Nordea is free to prevent employees from investing in bitcoin due to the risks associated with cryptocurrency.

Denmark’s union for financial industry employees filed a suit against the bank, as a result of a memo circulated in January 2018 warning employees that “the risks were too high” to trade in crypto. Nordea justified its ban by saying that the crypto markets were unregulated and linked to criminal activities, including money laundering.

On the bank’s decision, Kent Petersen, the union’s chairman, said:

We filed suit because of the principle that everyone obviously has a private life and the right to act as a private individual.

He continued,

It was important for us and our members to establish what rights managers have. In this case, it was more far-reaching than what we find to be appropriate.

Danish courts have gone on to uphold Nordea’s restriction of employees trading crypto in their free time. The ruling does not apply to crypto-assets that were acquired prior to the ban.

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