Switzerland’s financial watchdog says it is open to international cooperation and oversight of the way in which it regulates Facebook’s planned cryptocurrency network.
In a Sept. 12 interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) director Mark Branson said it was illusory to believe that a single country could regulate a project of Libra’s scope on its own.
Libra ‘fits perfectly’ into Switzerland’s regulatory framework
Branson argued that Switzerland’s ambitions to evolve into a major financial center would necessarily entail reputational risks and thus draw international attention:
"Shy of these risks, you have less attention, but may end up in insignificance," he said.
The country has a robust regulatory and supervisory framework that can address the needs of major legacy financial players — and equally, therefore, those of ambitious new fintech projects, he said.