Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau delivers a speech to open a conference entitled “Bretton Woods: 75 years later” in Paris, France, July 16, 2019.
Digital currencies may be useful as cash transactions decrease in some countries, but the issuance should be handled by a central bank, not by a private bank, French President Francois Villeroy de Galhau said.
With the increase in cryptocurrency and Facebook’s Libra plan, central banks around the world are looking for the possibility of issuing digital money to prevent the loss of state control over money.
Villeroy de Galhau said the company should respond to Facebook’s plan as well as to its fast-developing technology and some banks’ digital currency needs, adding that civilians also want alternatives to cash.
He added that private citizens could also start wanting an alternative to cash.
“In some northern European countries, notably Sweden and the Netherlands, the use of bank notes is falling extremely quickly and they are wondering whether we need to give citizens the right to digital money that is no longer a physical bank note but which has the same quality, notably the security of a central bank,” he told France Inter radio.
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