Facebook’s Libra hasn’t launched, but big banks are already taking notice

Facebook has only just revealed its far-reaching cryptocurrency plans, but Libra is already prompting global financial institutions to take action.

Central banks are reportedly becoming more interested in the idea of creating their own digital currencies following Facebook’s Libra reveal, as evidenced by new comments from the head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 

As the bank used by central bankers. BIS is, in the words of Quartz, among the “the stodgiest of stodgy institutions.” But BIS bank head Agustín Carstens now says central banks have to take digital currency much more seriously as a result of Facebook’s move.

“Many central banks are working on it; we are working on it, supporting them. And it might be that it is sooner than we think that there is a market and we need to be able to provide central bank digital currencies,” Carstens said in a new interview with theFinancial Times.

So what is it about Libra that has captured the attention of central banks in a way that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others have not? It appears that there are two main factors at play. 

The first is that Facebook’s approach, which tie