US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says Libra’s 2020 launch is “Premature”

As Mark Zuckerberg gears up towards standing before the Senate this week, Steve Mnuchin the US Treasury Secretary says that Facebook’s planned launch of Libra is “premature”.

He went on to say that there are some “fundamental issues” that remain.  Speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, the Treasury Secretary stated  he told Facebook that it hasn’t addressed “fundamental issues” around the launch, including concerns about money laundering and BSA compliance.

Mnuchin says he spoke with  international counterparts about Libra last week and he added discussions about the project are happening at the G-7 and G-20 levels. It was there we heard some strong comments from France about how they may block the digital currency.

Later in the session New York attorney general Letitia James said the list of states, districts and territories investigating Facebook for potential antitrust violations has expanded.  

Facebook’s shares have suffered today as a consequence of these two separate events and we have the main event to look forward to this week as the Libra co-founder Mark Zuckerberg stands before the Senate to defend the proposed stablecoin.