DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
WASHINGTON, D.C.
October 21, 2019
The Honorable Emanuel Cleaver, II
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Cleaver:
Thank you for your letters of August 27, 2019, and September 26, 2019, regarding Facebook's proposed Libra digital currency. Treasury appreciates and shares your concerns about Libra as well as other digital currencies.
As you note, fundamental questions about the Libra effort remain unanswered. Libra may implicate a wide range of laws and regulations, including securities, consumer financial protection, privacy, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), and tax. The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) working group on digital assets and distributed ledger technologies is monitoring developments related to the Libra project and is working to identify and assess potential risks and gaps in authorities that may require further attention. As Congress continues to examine these issues, Treasury will closely monitor this market to address regulatory gaps that it identifies and looks...
Notes:
1) Compare with FAQ # 646, FAQ # 647 and Under Secretary Sigal Mandelker Remarks ABA/ABA Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference December 3, 2018. The statement concerning the relationship between OFAC sanctions and digital currencies is consistent with those other items. Here, Treasury says that "all virtual asset service providers participating in the Libra [digital currency] network must implement the same AML/CFT requirements as traditional financial institutions," and that this includes "compliance with respect to...Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions."