Report | Libra Basics: What Is Facebook’s Currency Project?

The Open Markets Institute submitted a report to Congress on July 15, 2019 on Facebook’s plans to launch Libra, a global digital currency. Open Markets’ report emphasizes Facebook’s dismal track record on data privacy makes its proposal to launch Libra a dangerous liability at home and abroad and proposes a suite of policy options for Congress to consider. 

The brief emphasizes the key risks of Facebook’s Libra currency and Calibra bank projects, including facilitating money laundering and terrorist financing, enabling anti-competitive activity, and sparking new coercive forms of debt collection. We also highlight the potential for Libra to create global financial instability and undermine the fragile monetary and payments systems in developing countries. Significantly, Facebook’s Libra would reduce government power to manage money flows, which could undermine sanctions regimes.

Read the full report here.

Note: This report has been updated on July 19, 2019.