Sound legal basis a must for digital monies like Facebook's Libra: G7

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Facebook's proposed digital currency must have legal and regulatory issues worked out in key economies before it can be put into use, the Group of Seven economies said Thursday.
In a new report on stablecoins -- a type of digital currency backed by reserves assets -- the G7 also urged regulators to coordinate their work to prevent issuers from seeking out the most favorable country from which to operate.
"For stablecoin developers, a sound legal basis in all relevant jurisdictions... is an absolute prerequisite," according to the report from the G7 working group led by Benoit Coeure, a European Central Bank board member.
Facebook's Libra has generated intense scrutiny from officials worldwide who worry about the impact it could have on the financial system.France's Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire is due to hold a news conference to discuss the report's findings.
Digital currencies are ripe for use by terrorist organizations or for money laundering, so developers must have "legal clarity" about "all participants in the stablecoin ecosystem, such as coin holders and issuers," the report said.
They also pose other challenges to the financial system and to banks, if they are adopted widely.
"Ambiguous rights and obligations could make the stablecoin arrangement vulnerable to loss of confidence -- an unacceptable risk, especially in a payment system of potentially global importance," the report said.

 The G7 called said national regulators "must coordinate across agencies, sectors and jurisdictions," to address the risks and "forestall harmful regulatory arbitrage." "These risks, which are of a systemic nature.

G7 unity under stress as it wrestles with Iran, Amazon fires and trade

Current Affairs

G7 leaders close their summit on Monday with discussion of world problems including the fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest, but overshadowed by President Donald Trump's trade wars and questions over the group's unity.
The summit in Biarritz, a high-end surfers' paradise in southwestern France, saw a dramatic shift of focus Saturday when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif flew in to discuss the diplomatic deadlock on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.
Zarif's presence had not been expected and it represented a gamble by French host Emmanuel Macron who is seeking to soothe spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States.
The Iranian top diplomat didn't meet Trump, French diplomats said, but the presence of the two men in the same place at least sparked hopes of a detente. Just this July, the US government imposed heavy sanctions seeking to hamper Zarif's travel, and effectively banning him from the United States.
"Road ahead is difficult. But worth trying," the US-educated Zarif tweeted after meeting Macron and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, as well as British and German representatives.
French officials said Trump, who has imposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian economy over its nuclear programme, had been aware of the arrival.

 The sources suggested that the secretive visit had also been discussed during an impromptu two-hour lunch between the US president and Macron on Saturday."We work with full transparency with the Americans," one diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity, despite US media reports that the White House had been taken by surprise...Read More