Odaily Frontline | Governor of the Bank of France: Stablecoins may affect EU financial sovereignty in the next few decades

读者

2020-09-11 20:23 (UTC+8)

This article is about 1046 words, reading the full article takes about 2 minutes

The five governments jointly stated that they look forward to the European Commission's proposal to regulate encrypted assets this month.

AI Summary

Expand

The five governments jointly stated that they look forward to the European Commission's proposal to regulate encrypted assets this month.

This article comes fromCointelegraph, by MARIE HUILLET

Odaily Translator |

The head of the Bank of France has warned that Europe must not lose momentum as it tackles the challenges posed by private sector global digital assets.

His warning comes as five European Union governments, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, back the European Commission's intention to draft regulations for asset-backed crypto assets, particularly stablecoins.

In their draft joint statement, the five governments reportedly pledged to prevent global stablecoins from operating in the EU until all legal, regulatory and supervisory issues are resolved. The committee is expected to come up with recommendations for regulating crypto assets later this month.September 11,Bank of France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau speaks at the Bundesbank conference

"We in Europe face urgent and strategic choices on payments that will have implications for our financial sovereignty for decades to come," he said.

The most imminent risk, according to Villeroy de Galhau, is that "Big Tech" will leverage its global market penetration to create "private financial infrastructure and 'money' systems that compete with public monetary sovereignty." , as they will position themselves as issuers and administrators of a global 'currency'."

In this context, the governor warned that a future central bank digital currency (CBDC) could end up being issued “on the back end” of future “Big Tech” stablecoins.

Furthermore, he warned that jurisdictions could then respond to the intense pressure on private payment assets by issuing their own CBDCs domestically and globally, but there is insufficient coordination in the global financial community.

Combining these CBDCs with private-sector initiatives could overshadow other central bank inputs, he said.

He stressed that the European Central Bank (ECB) and the entire Eurosystem “cannot allow” itself to “fall behind” on CBDC.

He said that a CBDC in Europe could consist of a retail version (for the public) and a wholesale version (for financial institutions). He also emphasized that there is no contradiction between considering a euro CBDC and supporting the European payments initiative.

Villeroy de Galhau believes that existing payment inefficiencies, especially cross-border payments, must be addressed at their root through public-private partnership initiatives. If these are ignored, private sector global stablecoins will address these shortcomings first, thereby setting the agenda for the future development of the digital economy.

He also pointed to existing asymmetries in the payments space: "Our European ecosystem is already heavily dependent on non-European players (such as international credit card schemes and large tech companies), with little confidence in business continuity, technical and commercial decisions, and data protection. , usage and storage with little control."

The asymmetry problem doesn't stop there. "Europe has not developed a global social network like some important countries," he said, making it all the more urgent to develop a coherent and decisive strategy in the payments space."In response to future private sector stablecoins, he noted,