How do politicians worldwide respond to Facebook cryptocurrency Libra?

Facebook’s plans to launch cryptocurrency Libra have already caused a stir. Not only among crypto enthusiasts and bitcoin maximalists, but also among central banks and politicians from all over the world. There is a call for more supervision and regulation. Read all responses here.

• The French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire said that Libra “cannot and must not happen” and that “there is no question of the cryptocurrency becoming a sovereign currency.” banks. They must jointly review a Libra and come up with an advisory report next month.
• Markus Ferber, a German member of the European Parliament, warned that Facebook could become a “shadow bank” and said regulators should be vigilant.
• The American representative Patrick McHenry, Republican at the House Financial Services Committee, asked for a hearing on Project Libra. He did this by letter to the chairman of the committee, the American representative Maxine Waters. In turn, Waters called for Facebook to stop the Libra project.
  “We regulators should see this as a wake-up call, we must take serious care of potential privacy and national security issues, cyber security risks and trade risks caused by cryptocurrencies,” Waters said. She added: “Given the company’s troubled past, I request that Facebook agree to a moratorium on every move forward in developing a cryptocurrency, until Congress and regulators have the opportunity to investigate these issues and take action. “
• A Democratic member of the US Senate, Sherrod Brown reportedly said: “Facebook is too big and too powerful and it has used that power to exploit users’ data without protecting their privacy. We cannot allow Facebook to perform a risky new cryptocurrency without the supervision of a Swiss bank account. “
• The president of the American Federal Reserve is Jerome Powell. He said the central bank talked to Libra about Facebook. “Facebook has visited regulators around the world to discuss their plans for Libra. They also talked to us. There are benefits … but also risks that we look at. This is similar to what Bankor of England Governor Carney said. “
• Governor Mark Carney of the Bank of England said he wants to give Libra the benefit of the doubt, but warned that massive adoption forces Libra to “be subject to the highest standards of regulation.” He also said that Libra could just launch without regulators being happy about it .
• Philip Lowe from the Australian Central Bank said: “There are still many problems we face with Facebook’s Libra.” He added: “There are many regulatory issues that need to be addressed and they must ensure a solid business case. We have to be careful with conclusions. “
• The Swiss regulator in the financial markets allegedly also has contact with the people behind team Libra. He must determine whether the plans require approval from the supervisors.
• Dutch politicians have not yet responded to Facebook’s plans.

Facebook is expected to launch cryptocurrency Libra in 2020. We previously wrote a complete overview about this, shortly after the white paper was publicly shared.