Facebook's Libra coin likely to run a regulatory gauntlet

Facebook Inc will face unprecedented regulatory scrutiny over a new digital currency that the social media company hopes will become globally recognized legal tender within a year.

Since Facebook unveiled its cryptocurrency, called Libra, 10 days ago, Reuters has spoken with more than a dozen people with experience in financial regulation, financial technology, payments or cryptocurrency. Few expected government agencies to proceed lightly.

The company’s announcement was met with immediate backlash from US lawmakers and regulators across the globe, who are concerned that Facebook is already too massive and careless with users’ privacy.

Randal Quarles, chair of the Financial Stability Board, which coordinates financial rules for G20 countries, warned this week that wider use of crypto-assets for retail payments needs close global scrutiny by regulators. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin remain one of the least-regulated areas of finance.

“It’s a complete disaster from a regulatory perspective,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of antitrust advocacy group the Open Markets Institute. “This is a corporation that’s got fires all over the world with regulators. It’s only going to get worse.”

The plan for Libra involves taking customer deposits, investing them in government bonds, holding traditional currencies in reserves and offering cross-border services and transacting in the new coin will require engagement with central banks, financial regulators and enforcement authorities around the globe.

The Facebook subsidiary formed to handle Libra transactions, called Calibra, has applied for money-transfer licenses in the United States and registered with the US Financial Crimes and Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a money services business, a spokesman said.

It has also applied for the license required to operate a cryptocurrency business in New York from the state’s Department of Financial Services, a person familiar with the matter said. Representatives of Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, the Bank of England, and Switzerland’s financial regulator FINMA have also said Facebook has been in touch.

“The scrutiny that we’ve seen is something that we expected and welcome,” a Facebook spokesman said. “We announced this early by design in order to have this discourse in the open and gather feedback.”

Reserves would be subject to monetary policies of countries where funds are located, the spokesman said. Calibra does not plan to apply for local banking licenses, he added.

Facebook also formed a Geneva-based association to govern the new coin and hold the reserves, alongside several major partners.

They plan to launch the whole system in the first half of 2020, and intend to eventually offer a broad suite of financial services, including loans.

“They will not get a free pass anywhere,” said Sean Park, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, at Anthemis, a venture capital firm that backs digital financial services companies. “And, given their intention to be global, they will ultimately need literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of licenses from hundreds of different regulators across the globe.”