Central Banks to Meet With Libra Founders in Switzerland on Monday

Officials from the European Central Bank (ECB) and 25 global central banks will meet with Libra to assess the financial stability risks of the project.

Central bank forum to challenge Libra

On Sept. 16, Libra representatives will meet with the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure (CPMI), a part of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), in Switzerland, the Financial Times reports on Sept. 14.

The CPMI, a BIS international standard setter and a member of the Financial Stability Board, consists of 28 member banks, including the Bank of England, Deutsche Bundesbank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

According to the report, the event will be the first major encounter between Libra’s founders and global policymakers since Facebook revealed its plans for the stablecoin project on June 18. 

ECB has its own digital currency plans

Benoit Coeure, an ECB executive who will reportedly chair the meeting in Basel, recently said that the bar of regulatory approval for operating Libra in the European Union will be very high. 

Speaking after a gathering of EU finance ministers in Helsinki on Sept. 13, Coeure stated that it was time for regulators to “step up our thinking on a central bank digital currency,” hinting at the possibility of such an instrument for the ECB, as reported by Reuters.

According to Coeure, the ECB started to work on its little-known digital currency project plan before the launch of Libra. The exec is reportedly expected to provide a report on virtual currencies to G7 finance ministers in October.

At the same gathering in Helsinki, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stated that Europe should consider its own public digital currency to challenge Libra. Reiterating concerns over Libra, Le Maire claimed that he would discuss the potential for a supposed “EuroCoin” with his counterparts on the continent next month.

Previously, the BIS warned that financial services provided by major companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon could generate new risks for the banking sector. 

On Sept. 13, German parliamentarian Thomas Heilmann stated that the government will block projects like Libra, claiming that the authorities are not planning to allow any market-relevant private stablecoins.