Libra’s tussle with regulatory authorities worldwide doesn’t seem to stop. This time the Chief of the Reserve Bank of Australia has openly criticized the token stating that it cannot overtake the country’s traditional digital banking.
RBA Chief Philip Lowe stated that he is quite skeptical towards Libra, and thinks that it won’t take off in Australia, at least not in the short run. He also expressed his concern over the fact that Libra hasn’t complied with regulations yet. He said,
There’s a lot of water under the bridge before Facebook’s proposal becomes something we’re using all the time. There are a lot of regulatory issues that need to be addressed and they’ve got to make sure there’s a solid business case.
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Facebook has been at the receiving end of the criticism by regulators from around the world, especially in the United States, ever since it launched its cryptocurrency Libra on June 18. Maxine Waters, Representative of the US Congress, has called for an immediate boycott the Facebook’s currency, stating that it is a threat to consumer privacy. She stated,
It’s very important for them to stop right now what they’re doing so that we can get a handle on this. Waters said of the social media giant. We’ve got to protect our consumers. We just can’t allow them to go to Switzerland with all of its associates and begin to compete with the dollar.
Lowe, however, has taken a different approach to criticizing Libra, by pointing out that it cannot be successful in the country. He added,
We already have a very, very efficient electronic payments system that allows anyone of us to make bank payments to another person in five seconds just knowing their mobile phone number.
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The cryptocurrency is expected to be launched publicly in early 2020.
