ANALYSIS: Facebook Hints at New AML/CFT Paradigm For Libra

Facebook’s announcement of its Libra cryptocurrency has started a flurry of reporting on the regulatory formalities of the newly launched subsidiary Calibra, but so far there has been little coverage of what Calibra intends to do to comply with the substance of U.S. and foreign regulations in areas of significant risk, including securities laws, privacy laws, and anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).

In the AML/CFT compliance field, Calibra has registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a money services business (MSB), applied for a New York Bitlicense, and recently dropped a little-noticed hint that it intends ...