As part of its G7 presidency, France has requested the establishment of a working group on stablecoins. The announcement was made on Tuesday, June 18, by the French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire on the radio station EUROPE 1, in reaction to Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency (see EUROPE 12277/24).
"That Facebook creates a transaction tool, why not? On the other hand, however, there can be no question of it becoming a sovereign currency", the minister reacted.
"We will ask for guarantees (...) guarantees that this transaction instrument cannot be diverted, for example, for the financing of terrorism or for the financing of unlawful activities", he continued, announcing that he had asked the Central Bank governors of the seven G7 member countries to report on the guarantees that such an initiative should set.
In a letter to Benoît Coeuré, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), the minister indicated that the working group would be composed of G7 high-level Central Banks as well as IMF and G7 Presidency representatives and should examine a series of challenges raised by the emergence of stablecoins, including on the regulatory front.
The group should focus in particular on safeguards to be established in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, operational resilience requirements for issuers, risks to financial stability, as well as monetary policy issues.
The letter asks Benoît Coeuré to coordinate the group's work with a view to issuing a report by the end of the French G7 Presidency. A first review of the work is expected at the G7 'Finance' meeting in mid-July in Chantilly. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)