Breaking news shows Facebook is partnering with a lobbying firm to try to promote its cryptocurrency offering Libra in response to pushback from legislators and regulatory agencies.
What could go wrong?
An O’Dwyer report Monday talks about Facebook hiring a firm called FS Vector based out of Washington.
“Announcement of the social network’s forays into the digital asset space has … raised serious concerns among lawmakers,” writes Jon Gingerich.
“Leading the Facebook account is FS Vector partner John Collins, former vice president of international policy at the American Bankers Association’s international subsidiary, the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade,” adds Marie Huillet at Cointelegraph in reporting this morning. “Previously, Collins had worked at the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and also spearheaded Congress’ first research into digital currencies in 2013.”
The current move is partly to address controversy that’s now part of the Libra saga.
After Facebook chose to locate the headquarters for its Libra Association in Switzerland, U.S. legislators visited in mid-July, but came away with remaining concerns.
“Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee said that their concerns remained about ‘allowing a large tech company to create a privately controlled, alternative global currency.’” Huillet writes.
Fed chair Jerome Powell has also gotten into the action.
“Libra raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability,” Powell said in July, according to O’Dwyer.
Libra also got the obligatory presidential tweet:
If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks, both National and International,” Trump said in a pair of tweets July 11, in which he went on to praise the American dollar as a mainstay. “We have only one real currency in the USA, and it is stronger than ever, both dependable and reliable. It is by far the most dominant currency anywhere in the World, and it will always stay that way. It is called the United States Dollar!”
Facebook, on the other hand, is arguing that bringing a digital currency to the un-banked could help many people to thrive and boost the global economy.
Although the coin is set to launch next year, pushback seems to have had an effect.
FS Vector promotes itself as the company for the job, an expert in blockchain and financial services markets and regulatory compliance.
Let’s see what happens as 2019 rolls on.