Facebook News: French Finance Minister Warns Against Libra Cryptocurrency Being Developed In EU

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Wednesday that he would not like the Libra cryptocurrency to be developed in the European Union, as he believes that the digital currency undermines the monetary sovereignty of EU member states. He also warned that the cryptocurrency could be used for illegal activity, such as terrorist financing or money laundering operations.

"I'm absolutely not an enemy of Facebook, nor am I an enemy of Google or Amazon," Le Maire said. He believes "it should not be the role of a private company to try to get a sovereign currency like a sovereign state."

He continued that Libra "has the potential to become a systematically important payment system" but that "such a system would need to meet the highest standards of resilience and be subject to appropriate supervisory oversight."

On Tuesday, Valdis Dombrovskis, the executive vice president-designate of the European Commission, told EU lawmakers that "we will need to regulate Libra, to supervise it on an EU level, both from the perspective of financial stability and the protection of financial investors.

Dombrovskis added that financial stability, monetary stability and anti-money laundering are just a few of the areas that should be considered when regulating the cryptocurrency.

U.S. officials have also had doubts about Libra.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said that the digital currency "raises serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering and financial stability. "

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also said that he is "not comfortable" with the idea of Facebook's Libra, and that its possible use for criminal activity poses a national security issue for the United States.

The Libra cryptocurrency was announced in June by Facebook and can be managed by phone. The cryptocurrency is especially aimed at the estimated 1.7 billion people on the planet who lack access to a traditional bank account.