INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
analysts warned the social media giant could face major regulatory questions.French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, whose government
initiated a new tax on digital giants like Facebook that has angered the United States, said such digital money could never replace
sovereign currencies of governments and insisted Facebook''s plan required guarantees.Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said
Facebook''s new currency would have to withstand scrutiny of its operational resilience and not allow itself to be used for money
laundering or terror financing.Facebook and some two dozen partners on Tuesday released a prototype of a cryptocurrency called Libra, whose
rollout as global digital money is expected next year."If Facebook wants to create an instrument for transactions, why not But there is no
question that this can become a sovereign currency," Le Maire told Europe 1 radio, saying a "limit" had to be set."It cannot and must not
become a sovereign currency, with all of attributes of a currency", such as the capacity to issue sovereign debt and serve as a reserve
currency."The aspect of sovereignty must stay in the hands of states and not private companies which respond to private interests," Le Maire
added.There need to be "guarantees" so that "this transaction instrument is not misused, for example, for the financing of terrorism or
governors to prepare a report by mid-July to lay out the guarantees required from cryptocurrencies.Speaking in Portugal, Carney echoed Le
Maire''s concerns, saying the new cryptocurrency would require the strictest regulation."Anything that works in this world will become
instantly systemic and will have to be subject to the highest standards of regulation," Carney said, Bloomberg reported."So open mind, but
not open door," he said, Libra will be introduced in the wake of other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin but aims to avoid the roller-coaster
valuations that have attracted speculation and caused ruin.Cathy Mulligan, a cryptocurrency expert at London''s Imperial College, said
Facebook faced a huge challenge to win regulatory approval for such a service in its markets."Financial services operators act to protect
consumers first -- this is not something that Facebook are known for so we can expect difficulties for them," she told AFP.Mrs Mulligan said
that if Facebook wished to act like a "nation state" it would have to expect "governments to react quite strongly".She added given that
