Facebook-led Libra may not be approved, says European think tank official

Beatrice Weder di Mauro, president of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a European think tank, has said that Facebook-led stablecoin project, Libra, is unlikely to get approved.

“What libra has done is … it has shaken up the central banking community,” because a private sector-backed global digital currency has suddenly become a real possibility, Weder di Mauro told CNBC in an interview published Friday.

“This is also why it’s probably not going to happen...because the regulators are right now saying we are not going to allow it,” she added.

di Mauro, however, believes that a different digital global currency could be created now, either from the private sector or central banks. “Central banks would be able to, if they banded together, issue a global currency themselves.”

Libra was announced in mid-June and has faced intense scrutiny from global regulators since then. Earlier this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before U.S. Congress, but lawmakers remain as concerned about Libra as they were before.