According to a Reuters report on September 11, Facebook is now seeking a payment system license in Switzerland under the jurisdiction of Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
Reportedly, over two dozen firms that include big names like Facebook, Visa, PayPal, Coinbase, among various others, are seeking this key license from Switzerland’s financial regulator.
As per a statement published on the Libra Association’s website, the committee stated:
“Switzerland offers a pathway for responsible financial services innovation harmonized with global financial norms and strong oversight. We are engaging in constructive dialogue with FINMA and are encouraged to see a feasible pathway for an open-source blockchain network to become a regulated, low-friction, high-security payment system.”
It further added that this license will pay a vital role in achieving their goal of empowering individuals by promoting cryptocurrencies as a legitimate means of transaction which can be used in real-world scenarios.
Earlier this year, FINMA had released various regulatory requirements for payments systems on the blockchain, this applies to any and all blockchain service providers ranging from exchanges, wallets and various trading platforms. FINMA commented on the matter stating:
“Due to the issuance of Libra payment tokens, the services planned by the Libra project would clearly go beyond those of a pure payment system,” this means Libra would be subject to various additional requirements.
The Libra Association seemed pretty confident about their whereabouts. “We are engaging in constructive dialogue with FINMA and we see a feasible pathway for an open-source blockchain network to become a regulated, low-friction, high-security payment system,” the Libra Associations said in a statement.
As of now, they have requested FINMA to clarify the status of Libra coin under Swiss supervisory law.
Libra under strict scrutiny
Ever since Facebook announced the launch of their cryptocurrency Libra, it has been under the radar of government bodies all across the globe. The global watch dogs for anti-money laundering have been scrambling to regulate it. The Libra association however hasn’t stalled their plans to deploy Libra in any means.
This report surfaced shortly after an earlier report, which stated that Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will keeping a close eye on Libra. According to the FATF, if Libra wants to operate successfully, then Facebook will have to be regulated to address Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) concerns. The president of FATF, Xiangmin Liu said:
“We want to make sure that if there are significant risks, they need to be addressed.”
