French finance minister Bruno Le Maire on Thursday attacked and said that the country will block the development of the digital currency in Europe.
The steps were taken as the ministry is concerned about Libra’s impact on the financial stability and believes that it will threaten the existing “monetary sovereignty,” per Reuters report.
“All these concerns about Libra are serious. I, therefore, want to say with plenty of clarity: in these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil,” Le Maire said in an OCED conference on virtual currencies.
“The monetary sovereignty of countries is at stake [from a] possible privatization of money… by a sole actor with more than 2 billion users on the planet.”
Facing the French wall
Announced in June, Facebook is aiming to launch its digital currency in 2020. If launched, the social media company will introduce the cryptocurrency to its 2.7 billion users and across multiple platforms owned by it – Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Per its whitepaper, the California-headquartered company is aiming to bring the “unbanked” population under the financial ecosystem with its digital currency.
France was hostile towards Facebook’s crypto initiative since its official announcement. The minister earlier raised concerns for the same saying that the Libra should be stopped to “become a sovereign currency.”
“It can’t and it must not happen,” he added.
Meanwhile, Facebook is from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) for its digital currency.
The Swiss regulator, however, clarified that to issue the license, it will strictly scrutinize Libra’s design to prevent any illegal activities including money laundering and terror financing.
The head of FINMA also elaborated that the Swiss watchdog agency is of Libra and “a project of such a global dimension can be addressed only via international coordination.”
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