Altcoin News: France Promises to Block the Development of Libra in EU
September 12, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
France will block the development of the Libra cryptocurrency project in Europe, as it threatens the “monetary sovereignty of governments”. This was announced by French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire on Thursday during the opening of the OECD cryptocurrency conference.
“I want to be absolutely clear: in these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil,” Arab News quoted Le Maire.
Le Maire has previously spoken out about the threats that the Facebook cryptocurrency project poses to national currencies. In June, he turned to the leaders of the central banks of the G7 countries with a request to prepare a report on the project.
Also today, on the subject of Libra, in conversation with the publication Neue Zuercher Zeitung, the director of the Office for Financial Market Control of Switzerland, Mark Branson, spoke in the zone of the authority of which Facebook registered his project. According to Branson, Libra carries both risks and opportunities.
“High finance can bring reputational risks. This is true everywhere in the world. But I have a hard time thinking that Switzerland should become a second-rate financial center just to avoid such risks. The decisive factor is whether Switzerland has credible regulation and supervision as well as appropriate framework conditions for large players”, he said.
Due to the lack of direct jurisdiction, the French authorities are unlikely to be able to block the development of Libra in Europe, but they can block access to related applications on their territory and prohibit locally regulated entities from working with cryptocurrency, thus limiting the possibilities for its practical application.
The Swiss regulator, meanwhile, is also not going to weaken control over Libra and promises to impose additional requirements on it besides the rules for payment companies, as which the project intends to register.
Author: Marko Vidrih
