Global central banks questioning Facebook-led weights over financial risks

The Facebook-led Vågen project will address questions from 26 central banks about the perceived risk of financial stability posed by the cryptocurrency project.

Monday, the Payment and Market Infrastructure Committee – a forum for central banks under the Bank for International Settlements – will quiz the Libra Association in Basel, Switzerland, officials told the Financial Times. The attendance will reportedly include the Bank of England and the US Central Bank.

Board member of the European Central Bank Benoit Coeure will chair the meeting, where Libra is expected to answer questions about planned scope and structure. The central banks' findings will be included in an October report for the G7 nations in October, a FT official said.

On Friday, after a meeting with EU finance ministers in Helsinki, Finland, Coeure said that cryptocurrency projects raised by Vågen were "very strong concerns."

In a Bloomberg report on Friday, he allegedly said:

"We need to look very closely at these projects, and the regulatory approval bar is set very high."

However, Coeure added that Vågen "has gained new thinking on how to improve our payment systems."

Libra will likely have to make a strong case for its plans, with regulators around the world voicing concerns about the project that would offer digital currency-based payments to Facebook's billions of global users.

Especially maybe, last Thursday, the French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire threatened to block the Libra in the EU and said:

"I want to be absolutely clear: under these conditions we can not authorize the development of The emphasis on European soil. ”

The threat to national currencies from Libra has also prompted the authorities to set up plans for central bank-based digital currencies.

People's Bank of China is rushed after launching its digital yuan in a meeting with Libra, with a special team working on the secret office project away from the institution's headquarters.

In his Thursday comments, Le Maire also suggested that he has discussed the creation of a "public digital currency" with ECB President Mario Draghi and Christine Lagarde, who will assume his position later this year.

Coeure added on Friday that it was time for regulators to "increase our thinking about a central bank digital currency," according to FT.

Benoit Coeure image via ECB / Flickr