Fintech Daily Digest

William Shatner is heading his own start-up, Third Millenia, which will help people use the Mattereum protocol. Mattereum is a blockchain solution for authenticity and legal ownership bolstered by the blockchain. Using microchips and Ethereum, users can not only validate, for example, a signed photograph, but they can also find out a lot more backstory about the item in question. Shatner had previously partnered with the company.

One idea as to how officials might keep CEO Mark Zuckerberg's dreams grounded in reality is to get under the hood of what goes into the digital currency in the first place. Given Libra wants to back every digital cent with a mix of real-world reserve currencies, that might be the best place to start. Bank of England boss Mark Carney hinted at this in his Mansion House speech on Thursday, proposing that tech firms and other non-banks be allowed to hold funds directly at the central bank.

As expected, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards released Friday include a controversial requirement that "virtual asset service providers" (VASPs), including crypto exchanges, pass information about their customers to one another when transferring funds between firms.

SWIFT: "We don't think that cross-border payments challenges should be solved for with closed loop systems. Doing so would easily solve for a subset - or multiple subsets - of participants, but value needs to move everywhere - from every account, to every account. Loops create barriers and friction; they reduce fungibility and portability, they limit competition and they fragment liquidity."

In many respects, he says, Libra is like an ETF for a basket of currencies, except that Libra will not trade on regulated exchanges. In fact, it is so much like an ETF, the US SEC is likely to at least contemplate asserting jurisdiction over the tokens.

Russian government-owned news agency TASS has reported that Russia will not legalize Libra.

"A liquid, stable currency would be attractive to many in emerging markets. So attractive, in fact, that if enough people trade out of their local currencies, they could threaten the ability of emerging market governments to control their monetary supply, the local means of exchange, and, in some cases, their ability to impose capital controls."

France is creating a G7 task force to study how central banks ensure cryptocurrencies like Facebook's Libra are governed by regulations. Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the task force would be led by Benoit Coeure, a ECB board member.

What happens if all users want to sell their Libra currency at once, causing the Libra Reserve to hold a fire sale of assets? If the Libra system becomes intertwined in our global economy in the way Facebook hopes, we would need to consider a public bailout of a privately managed system.

Individual Libra-holders face risks. One is currency fluctuations. If, say, the yen rises against the basket to which Libra is pegged, Japanese holders of Libra will lose out. The new currency will not yield interest (though neither do many bank deposits nowadays).

Were every Western depositor to move a tenth of their bank savings into Libras, its reserve fund would be worth over $2trn, making it a big force in bond markets. Banks that suddenly saw lots of deposits leave for Libras would be vulnerable to a panic over their solvency; they would also have to shrink their lending. And the prospect of huge sums flowing across borders will worry emerging countries with a fragile balance of payments

"What are they doing with the money, if I give them some dollars to buy the Libra, they're kinda being fuzzy about that in their whitepaper…The strength of the collateral is a question I would have about it."

UK-based Paysend Group is launching a new global digital currency, Pays XDR. This stable coin is 100% backed by cash reserves and the reserves are matched in the exact proportion of the IMF's Special Drawing Rights.

This year, in the EY third biennial FinTech adoption trends survey, 96% of the 27,000 consumers surveyed (across 27 global markets) reported they were at least aware of a FinTech transfer or payments service - and 75% had used one.

Facebook's Libra may not be available in India due to the current ban of blockchain-based currency transactions. Apparently, Facebook has not applied for approval with the Reserve Bank of India to operate its digital currency in the country.

The Bank of England announced plans to consult on opening access to its balance sheet to new payment providers. Allowing all payment providers to store funds overnight in interest-bearing accounts at the central bank would help achieve the goal that similar activities should be regulated consistently.

A new initiative plans to make six of Europe's smartphone wallets interoperable with each other, creating a total network of 5 million users in 10 European countries. Notably, they are working with Chinese fintech giant Alipay to develop a unified QR code.

The Coinbase Card will be available in Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands. The card allows users with Coinbase accounts to spend cryptocurrencies in stores and online at any merchant that accepts Visa.

QuadrigaCX's Gerald Cotten, who *apparently* died last December, transferred millions of dollars in crypto out of customer accounts and into other exchanges, with the funds being used to furnish his personal lifestyle and trading habits.

On June 21, the Financial Action Task Force will publish a note to clarify how participating nations should oversee virtual assets. The new rules will apply to businesses working with tokens and cryptocurrencies, such as exchanges and custodians and crypto hedge funds.