Next BoE governor suspicious of Facebook’s digital currency Libra

The next governor of the Bank of England (BoE), Andrew Bailey, admits that he is suspicious of Facebook’s digital currency called Libra, Reuters reported.

“I think the initiative has been handled pretty poorly in the sense that it was very vague,” Bailey told lawmakers in Britain’s parliament.

Bailey will officially start as the new governor of BoE on March 16. He currently heads the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). According to Bailey, the FCA regulator and BoE already reached out to the Libra developers to clear if the people who will own the digital currency will have a direct claim on assets that underpin it.

“You could never get a completely clear answer to that question, consequence of which is I remain pretty suspicious,” he said.

Bailey is also concerned with the personal data generated by the cryptocurrency that Facebook would use. He said this would raise a lot of issues for the regulators.

Meanwhile, Facebook has revamped its digital currency plans. The social media company will still push Libra, but its offerings will now include government-backed currencies.

“Reporting that Facebook does not intend to offer the Libra currency in its Calibra wallet is entirely incorrect. Facebook remains fully committed to the project,” a Facebook representative said in a statement after The Information reported that Facebook was no longer planning to support Libra in its digital wallet, Calibra.

The Libra project was first announced in June 2019. It was considered a bold move that aimed to revolutionize money transfers. However, some considered it a threat.

“The proactive attempt at regulatory and political scrutiny of the Libra initiative has created awareness and momentum in the form of dialogue and pushbacks around the role of digital assets in the global economy,” Deloitte said.

On the other hand, Fran Boait, executive director of Positive Money warned that digital currencies released by the private sector like Facebook’s Libra are “unaccountable,” “uncontrollable” and “with no oversight.”

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