“You’ve got to be safe, robust and resilient from day one. It’s not a learning process: either it works or it doesn’t.”
Coeure indicated that authorities may involve in a prolonged debate and thorough scrutiny to ensure consumer privacy and ownership privileges:
“Down the road we might find that there are gaps or inconsistencies that would require a prolonged discussion by regulators on how to do it differently. Authorities are not going to let any such projects happen before we have answers to our questions and before we have the right regulatory framework.”
Coeure suggested rapid intervention from worldwide authorities on Libra in early July. The representative of the ECB said it would be unwise to permit the launch of a completely fresh asset like Libra on such a big scale without adequate laws and protective measures.
Coeure also indicated that the fast growth of digital and crypto resources has highlighted defects and weaknesses in current legislative systems and underscored how new techniques are to be adopted by banks which do not act quickly.
“All these projects are a rather useful wake-up call for regulators and public authorities, as they encourage us to raise a number of questions and might make us improve the way we do things.”
According to reports, the official G7 task force on stablecoins will study the subject running up to the annual conference of the International Monetary Fund in October, after which the discussion will move to the Financial Stability Board.