France to create G7 stablecoin taskforce following Libra's announcement
France, which holds the Group of Seven (G7) presidency, will create the group taskforce on “stablecoin” projects, according to a report from Reuters on Friday. The news was announced by France’s central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau. The taskforce will reportedly be headed by European Central Bank board member Benoit Coeure, and will also include Facebook’s planned cryptocurrency project, Libra.
Facebook unveiled its Libra project earlier this week, intending to bank the unbanked and facilitate low-fee money transfers globally. France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire said at the time that Libra “can’t and…must not happen” and that “it is out of question’’ for the cryptocurrency to “become a sovereign currency.”
He also reportedly called on the G-7 central bank governors and guardians of the global monetary system to review the social media giant’s cryptocurrency project and submit a report next month.
The Libra project is expected to go live sometime next year, but it has already faced scrutiny from central banks and politicians around the world. For instance, Markus Ferber, a German member of the European Parliament, warned that Facebook could become a “shadow bank” and said regulators should be vigilant.
