G20 to set stiffer restriction on digital currencies including 'Libra'

• Financial

On Friday, the 18th of October 2019, the Finance Minister of G20, a pact of 19 European countries alongside EU, had agreed to incline tougher restrictions on digital currencies likes of Facebook Inc.’s proposed “Libra,” adding that issuance of any kind of cryptocurrencies irrespective of their stability would not be allowed until a flurry of global risks those digital coins yielded worldwide were properly addressed.

Nonetheless, latest accord of the G20 Finance Ministers came forth a day after ECB Director had been quoted saying that the European Central Bank had no intention to block Facebook’s Libra or any other stable currencies, nonetheless, the G20 leaders appeared to have something else in their minds.

Aside from that, the latest G20 decision to block issuance of cryptocurrencies follows a meet of G7 leaders earlier this month, which had warned that the launch of a wide range of stable coins backed by conventional lenders alongside other assets such as blockchain based technologies, could possess a substantial scale of threat to the global monetary policy alongside financial stability.

Meanwhile, addressing to a raft of risks the digital currencies possess, leaders of the G20 nations said in a press briefing following the meet on Friday (October 18th), “Such risks, including in particular those related to money laundering, illicit finance, and consumer and investor protection, need to be evaluated and appropriately addressed before these projects can commence operation,” while BoJ (Bank of Japan) head, Kuroda, who chaired the G20 gatherings, said in a separate news conference, “Policymakers have expressed concerns over various risks stablecoins pose.

Until they are addressed, stablecoins should not be issued. That was something agreed by the G20 members. ”