To block Facebook's cryptocurrency Libra project, which has raised many criticisms (see EUROPE 12318/9), the French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, has the solution: create a public cryptocurrency that would be managed by the central banks.
"I propose that we start thinking about a public digital currency issued by central banks that would guarantee the total security of transactions, their speed, simplicity and free of charge. We could make progress in this direction at the next annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in October", he said in an interview with the newspaper La Croix, published Thursday, September 5.
Bruno Le Maire did not give any details on this initiative, but he recalled that his country firmly refused that a private company like Facebook should acquire the means of those of a sovereign State (see EUROPE 12279/12).
China and the United States are already considering creating their own national cryptocurrency. This summer, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney proposed the creation of a digital currency modelled on the Libra to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency.
At her hearing in the European Parliament on Wednesday (see EUROPE 12320/4), the candidate appointed by the European Council to head the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, was willing to consider it. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)