THELOGICALINDIAN - UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond appeared on CNBCs Squawk Box this anniversary giving the UK governments angle on Facebooks Libra cryptocurrency
Libra Could Both Transform And Harm the UK
When Hammond was questioned as to his ‘take’ on Libra, he was quick to emphasise its potential, both absolute and negative.
He accurate apropos that if not appropriately regulated, Libra could become addition approach for money laundering, organised crime, and terrorism. So appealing abundant like every added banking apparatus out there. Although interestingly, this is an adverse affair of abounding in the crypto community, who abhorrence a potential lack of privacy in a Facebook run currency.
Following Hammond’s animadversion on money-laundering, the host questioned him as to whether Libra was altered to Bitcoin. However, it did not assume that Hammond had decidedly been apropos to Bitcoin, and he brushed this off this band of analytic by pointing out that it is altered because of how it is owned.
He bound confused on to abode the UK’s accommodation to appoint with Libra, and assignment with others to ensure it is finer regulated. If it works, he claimed, it could be transformative in operating payments systems.
Need For Banking Licence Is Not A Political Decision
The altercation again angry to the contempo political backfire adjoin Libra in the US; Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, alleged for development to be halted; Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, sees Libra as a national aegis issue; and President Trump has tweeted that Facebook would charge to access a banking charter.
However, Hammond would not be fatigued to animadversion on whether a aggregation arising an another bill would charge to be a bank. The UK, he acicular out, like the US, has an absolute authoritative system. This affair would again be one for the regulator to decide, not article for politicians to determine.
He did accent that anyone operating a systemically important structure, which this could absolutely be, should be appropriately and appropriately regulated.
With Hammond’s adjournment of the host’s attack to accessory Bitcoin with money laundering, it seems that the UK position is that Libra is currently a far greater antecedence in agreement of adjustment and management. In abounding ways, this does assume to align with the accepted US position.
What do you accomplish of the UK Chancellor’s views? Let us apperceive your thoughts in the animadversion area below!
Images address of Twitter @SquawkCNBC, Shutterstock
