BANGKOK, July 19 (TNA) — The governor of the Bank of Thailand (BoT) said he was ready to discuss Libra cryptocurrency with Facebook while expressing his concerns about identity verification and money-laundering laws.
BoT governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said in the Bangkok FinTech Fair 2019 that Facebook already contacted the central bank to seek discussion on its planned digital currency and BoT had concerns about identity verification and laws related to money-laundering because there was not any detailed practical rules on the matters.
The most important issue of financial services was trust because it concerned people’s money. People must have knowledge and understanding about the matter. The BoT was monitoring it closely as digital money kept developing, Mr Veerathai said.
He commented that it was not easy for Libra to replace local currencies in the countries where people trusted local currencies and there were efficient payment systems.
“If the systems of banks are efficient and the costs of transactions are low, why should money be transferred to e-wallets? Where will it be in the world? Who will manage it? And how will it be managed? Are their back offices reliable? It would cause difficulties because we must transfer money from our accounts,” Mr Veerathai said. (TNA)
