Chile Appeals Court Orders Bank to Resume Business with Crypto Exchange

The Chilean Court of Appeals has reached a decision in a court case involving crypto exchange Orionx and Banco Estado, saying the state owned bank must re-open the exchange’s deposit account that it closed earlier, local news outlet La Terceira reported last week.

The Fourth Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Santiago accepted the appeal filed by Orionx crypto exchange against Banco Estado, which closed the exchange’s deposit account in late March. The bank cited the absence of “regulatory recognition of [cryptocurrency trading]” at the time as excuse for its closure of the deposit account.

The recent decision by the Court of Appeals means Banco Estado must re-open Orionx’s deposit account.  In handing down its decision, the Court called the bank’s closure of the account as “arbitrary and illegal action, which constitutes a deprivation of the right protected by Article 19 No. 2 of the Political Constitution of the Republic, that is, the right to equality before the law.”

In late April, Chile’s competition court also issued a decision that two banks, Banco del Estado de Chile and Itau Corpbanca both needed to reopen the accounts of another crypto exchange, Buda, which both banks had closed.

In May, the president of Central Bank of Chile Mario Marcel told reporters that his institution is thinking about ways to advance the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the country. This, he believed, would help them better in confronting the dangers associated with the trading in cryptos.