The Libra Association appointed its first CEO, Stuart Levey, the Chief Legal Officer at HSBC Holdings. Levey will be overseeing the Libra digital currency and payments system and holds a strong compliance track record and is expected to join Libra in the coming months. However, HSBC has not shown the same upright compliance record. Levey is also expected to “combine technology innovation with robust compliance and regulatory framework.” The Facebook-led project has invited scrutiny from global regulators, with concerns over its threat to national sovereignty with its potential launch. Many of Libra’s original members, including Vodafone, PayPal, and Visa have also chosen to leave the association.
The Dutch Central Bank, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) has announced that crypto companies must register with the authority by May 18, or to stop operating immediately. DNB has looking to enforce the Dutch anti-money laundering (AML) laws, which was passed by the Dutch Parliament in April to comply with the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD4) laws. The Dutch AML laws are in compliance with the Financial Action Task Force-recommended AML directives and standards.
The European Central Bank (ECB) published an in-depth report on global stablecoins, focusing on highlighting the requirement for clear regulatory parameters for stablecoins, and the risks it may pose to financial stability. The ECB suggests that a “robust regulatory framework” must be established to address risks before its benefits could be explored.
During a live webinar, as part of the UK FinTech Week, Clara Chiu, the Head of Fintech Unit & Director of Licensing at the SFC explicitly stated that Hong Kong does not have the mandate to create a large regulatory regime for cryptocurrencies or to attract more investors or players in the crypto field. Rather than promoting the crypto sector, Hong Kong is rather focused on protecting investors and promoting new regulations for the same reason. Is focusing on licensing enough for the city?
Libra has released its updated whitepaper, marking several significant changes towards providing individual stablecoins for major fiat currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, and Libra Coin.
Clients of Cryptopia exchange will finally get their funds back after a New Zealand high court classifies the rules that they are entitled to their funds.
Japan will be enforcing new cryptocurrency-related regulations in May, as two of the pieces of legislation were passed by the Japanese House of Representatives last year. The Payment Services Act (PSA) and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA) were originally scheduled to come into effect in April, however, there has been a delay and the final enforcement date has been officially pushed to May.