Benoit Coeure – a member of the executive board of European Central Bank – urged financial regulators need to take a proper course of action fast, to be ready for the arrival of Facebook’s Libra stablecoin.
Reported by Bloomberg on July 7, during a speech in Aix-en-Provence in southern France, Coeure claimed that granting permission to develop new financial services, as well as asset classes, in a time when regulations are not properly drafted, can be irresponsible.
“We [financial regulators] have to move more quickly than we’ve been able to do up until now.” Coeure further stated.
Coeure believed that there are flaws in the current financial regulations, and the rapid growth of digital assets nowadays are exposing them. Coeure also strongly emphasized on the fact that banks are not adopting new technologies quick enough.
“All these projects are a rather useful wake-up call for regulators and public authorities, as they encourage us to raise a number of questions and might make us improve the way we do things.”
The ECB has been taking cautious steps towards approaching crypto assets. In January this year, one member of the ECB has claimed that cryptocurrency will become a “complete load of nonsense”. The bank has also held sessions to talk about the potential advantages, as well as disadvantages, of central bank digital currencies.
Jeremy Allaire – co-founder and CEO of payments firm Circle – has also shared perspectives that are the same as Coeure’s reaction. Specifically, Allaire hoped that the arrival of Libra will lead to the development of policies, on a nationwide level, regarding digital assets.
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