Bank of England Governor says Libra must meet a high bar

Aislinn Keely
The Bank of England’s governor, Mark Carney, has high standards for Facebook’s Libra. The bank head said the coin will need to be “rock solid” in order to get off the ground, according to a report from Bloomberg. The post Bank of England Governor says Libra must meet a high bar appeared first on The Block.

The Bank of England’s governor, Mark Carney, has high standards for Facebook’s Libra. The bank head said the coin will need to be “rock solid” in order to get off the ground, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The BOE governor has said he and other officials are approaching Libra with an open mind, but it will be subject to a careful eye. At a press conference today he said the initiative creates a variety of questions, and consequently, the Group of Seven (G7) central bankers are looking further into Facebook’s proposal.

The margin of error for a service this ambitious is zero for Carney. The standards are higher when dealing with this kind of application in comparison to other technologies, he said.

Carney’s concerns are similar to those expressed by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who said Libra creates many serious concerns surrounding AML, consumer protection and privacy. Lawmakers stateside have expressed similar concerns ahead of hearings in the U.S. House and Senate, where Facebook exec David Marcus is expected to testify.