鈥淓ven though it鈥檚 still early days, Libra has given us a lot to think about. From all the fake news we鈥檙e having to filter out, to more legitimate concerns around fraud, money laundering and financial risk, one thing鈥檚 for sure: it鈥檚 going to be an interesting development to watch, especially once Calibra鈥檚 David Marcus presents his聽聽to the United States Congress today.聽
鈥淚n terms of the impact and financial risk, most of what we鈥檙e hearing is coming from within the more established financial sectors. They鈥檙e either dismissing Libra as noise, or decrying it as a vehicle for potential terrorist activities 鈥� something, they say, that regulators won鈥檛 allow to happen, despite Calibra openly reporting its intention to work with said regulators and policymakers to ensure the platform is secure, auditable and resilient.
A鈥漷 the same time, of course, they鈥檙e defending the current system, claiming that it works well, is safe and secure, and doesn鈥檛 support terrorism.聽But, if we鈥檙e honest, AML systems have, to date, been largely unable to stop the vast amounts of laundered funds from moving around. In addition, our KYC and KYB processes use data from the likes of Companies House, which has been heavily criticized for their own lack of data validation and governance. 聽
鈥淎ll that aside, what鈥檚 become quite clear is that the existing system presents too many blockers for the poorer, under-banked members of our society.聽Those working in the UK, for example, and legitimately wanting to transfer their wages to their families in other countries, end up paying exorbitant banking fees, only to wait days for their funds to clear.
鈥淭his is where Libra, with its vision for financial inclusion, stands to make a difference. And if Libra doesn鈥檛 make it happen this time around, the technology and conceptual design are essentially open source, so someone else will. The wheels are in motion, and financial institutions that ignore the trend do so at their peril.鈥�
