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        <title><![CDATA[Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency revamped after backlash]]></title>
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            <media:title type="html">Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency revamped after backlash</media:title>
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        <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> Facebook’s (FB.O)  planned cryptocurrency Libra will be linked to individual national  currencies and overseen by global watchdogs in a scaled-back revamp it  hopes will win regulatory approval.</p><p>The prospect of Facebook’s 2.5 billion users adopting Libra has led 
to intense scrutiny from global regulators, with many worried its launch
 could erode national control over money.</p><p>Libra’s governing 
body, which is seeking the go-ahead from Switzerland’s markets watchdog,
 said on Thursday that it will now offer “stablecoins” backed by single 
currencies, as well as a redesigned token based on these currency-pegged
 coins.</p><p>The original plan was for Libra, which was unveiled last 
June, to be backed by a wide mixture of currencies and government debt. 
But central banks and regulators feared it could destabilise monetary 
policy, facilitate money laundering and erode users’ privacy, with some 
threatening to block it.</p><p>In response, the Libra Association, 
which will issue the coin and govern its network, said a “college” of 
central banks, regulators and enforcement agencies from more than 20 
countries set up by Swiss watchdog FINMA will have a say in its bid to 
be licensed as a payments service provider in Switzerland.</p><p>The 
Geneva-based Libra Association declined to give details of the body’s 
membership and it was not immediately clear how major regulators would 
respond to Libra’s updated plans.</p><p>Libra, which had planned to 
launch by the end of June, now aims to do so between mid-November and 
the end of the year, Dante Disparte, its head of policy and 
communications, said.</p><p>Some countries, including France and 
Germany, had said they would seek to block Libra’s launch, while other 
global bodies scrambled to set out rules for stablecoins.</p><p>Until the advent of Libra, these had been a niche aspect of cryptocurrencies and barely featured on the regulatory radar.</p><p>Bitcoin,
 the biggest digital currency, is little-used in payments or commerce, 
in part because of its extreme volatility, and remains largely 
unregulated.</p><p>Libra’s most prominent original backers, including payments giants Mastercard, (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/MA.N">MA.N</a>), Visa (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/V.N">V.N</a>) and PayPal (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/PYPL.O">PYPL.O</a>), ditched the project in the wake of the scrutiny.</p><h3>SAFEGUARDS</h3><p>Libra
 said it will now offer stablecoins based on a still-undecided line-up 
of individual currencies. It cited stablecoins based on the dollar, euro
 and sterling as possible examples.</p><p>Alongside these, Libra said 
it will also offer a revamped “Libra Coin”, a composite of some of the 
single-currency tokens, potentially for use in cross-border remittances.</p><p>“We’re retaining the construct of a multi-currency Libra, but 
it’s fundamentally changed, streamlined and simplified relative to the 
original one,” said Christian Catalini, head economist at Calibra, 
Facebook’s digital wallet that will offer Libra via its Messenger and 
WhatsApp messaging platforms.</p><p>Libra also said it would bolster 
protections for the Libra Coin’s reserve in case of “extreme market 
distress”. The reserve will hold liquid assets with short-term maturity 
and low credit risk and a capital buffer, the level of which is 
undecided.</p><p>Another change is that Libra plans to strengthen 
safeguards on money laundering or terrorist financing. The Association 
will register with the U.S Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement 
Network (FinCEN) as a money services business, a move that would come 
with heightened record-keeping ad reporting requirements.</p><p>Central  banks have accelerated their research on issuing their own digital  currencies, known as CBDCs, in response to Libra, with China closest to  launching one as issuance by Western central banks remains a distant  prospect.</p><p>Adding to Libra’s original goals of bringing financial services to 
people who lack access to banks, Libra said the redesign would now help 
governments transform payments systems.</p><p>The revamp could allow governments to “directly integrate” any future CBDCs into its network, Libra said.</p>]]></content:encoded>
                <dc:creator><![CDATA[GAGmen]]></dc:creator>
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