LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - The next governor of the Bank of
England, Andrew Bailey, said he was suspicious about Facebook's
proposed global digital currency Libra because it was not clear
whether it was fully backed by assets.
"I think the initiative has been handled pretty poorly in
the sense that it was very vague," Bailey told lawmakers in
Britain's parliament ahead of his March 16 start as BoE
governor.
Bailey said the Financial Conduct Authority regulator that
he currently heads and the BoE had asked Libra's developers
whether people owning it would have a direct claim on assets
that underpin it.
"You could never get a completely clear answer to that
question, consequence of which is I remain pretty suspicious."
Facebook said in June last year that it planned to launch
the digital currency in partnership with other companies but the
project has run into trouble with regulators around the world.
Bailey said Facebook's use of personal data generated by the
currency would also raise a lot of issues for regulators.
(Reporting by David Milliken and Elizabeth Howcroft; writing by
William Schomberg)