The coin has potential for abuse of market dominance and poses a risk to the monetary sovereignty of governments, said Bruno Le Maire at an OECD meeting in Paris. “We welcome this scrutiny and have deliberately designed a long launch runway to have these conversations, educate stakeholders and incorporate their feedback in our design,” said Dante Disparte, the Libra Association’s head of policy and communications, in response. (Le Monde, Gizmodo)

Talking point: Le Maire was among the first policymakers to raise concerns about Libra following its June launch, citing the coin’s potential use for money laundering and terrorist financing. The French government is leading international scrutiny of the currency. Three days after Facebook’s Libra announcement, François Villeroy de Galhau, Banque de France governor, launched a task force to look at how anti-money laundering and consumer protection laws should apply to similar coins. Members of the U.S. Congress have asked Libra to pause development of the coin until elected officials and regulators have been able to review it, which the company has not agreed to do. Le Maire’s remarks go further, but he did not specify how his government would block Facebook from working on or spreading the currency in Europe. In July, David Marcus, head of Facebook’s digital currency division Calibra, told a U.S. Senate committee that the company wouldn’t launch Libra until it has fully satisfied regulators’ concerns. He also called for the U.S. to take the lead on crypto regulation.