Alessandra Perrazzelli, deputy general manager of the Bank of Italy (also known as Bankitalia), used cautionary words but at the same time of great openness towards Libra, the cryptocurrency of Facebook. He did so during a speech at a Fintech conference organised in Rome by Fortune Finance.
“We have by no means closed the door to Libra, on the contrary, we are talking to many operators because we cannot ignore this. However, great caution is needed because at present we have the ability to intercept dirty money thanks to the definition of certain rules, whereas with these new instruments the ability to monitor is lost”.
Libra: being open but with caution
Bankitalia’s concern about the possible increase in the phenomenon of money laundering is evident. Perrazzelli acknowledged that Libra is an optimal solution for all those who want to make transactions and do not have access to banks. At the same time, it could be used by those who want to avoid regulation and monitoring.
The deputy general manager of the Bank of Italy, who worked with Corrado Passera in Intesa Sanpaolo, with Carlo De Benedetti in Olivetti, then headed Barclays Italia, passing through the board of directors of Atm believes that the authorisations and ‘boundaries’ with regard to Libra should be decided on an international level and not nationally: it is not a choice to be made country by country but by geographical areas.
“Libra approached the regulators imagining not to find excessive obstacles and instead found competence and attention. Now we want to see how the Libra board will be formed, which is still in progress”.
The board is currently composed of 28 members with the aim of reaching 100. After the evaluations of the Winklevoss twins who have revealed their intention to join the Libra Association, Monex Group is also moving in this direction.
The cryptocurrency launched by Facebook has recently also obtained the support of IBM. The company said it was ready to work with Facebook on blockchain projects.
