The announcement by Facebook in June 2019 of its plan to launch a global payment system based on the Libra ‘stablecoin’ has triggered an intense public debate about the potential benefits and risks of ‘stablecoins’, in general, and the Libra project, in particular.
While its promoters bill Libra as a new way for users to make digital payments, cheaply and conveniently, regulators eye it with suspicion as a privately-controlled ‘global currency’, backed by a ‘reserve fund’ that could, within a short period of time, become a ‘systemically important’ global trader of currencies and government securities.
The presentation of Libra has added new urgency for governments to update their legal frameworks to account for ‘stablecoins’ and other categories of ‘crypto-assets’, and for central banks to advance their own plans for ‘central bank digital currencies’ (CBDCs). The European Commission recently presented a comprehensive legislative proposal for a ‘Regulation on Markets in Cryptoassets (MiCA)’ while Sweden’s Riksbank launched a pilot project for a CBDC, the ‘e‑Krona’.
On 25 November 2020, Finance Watch organised a web conference on the opportunities and risks involved in the digital transition of the EU financial sector.
Online, Webex Event - Finance Watch contact@finance-watch.org aDFdtugMkzeEXUhHCmVG49806
