Today, we offer a snapshot of the contemporary global struggle between finance and political power.
Facebook’s new cryptocurrency Libra must meet the “highest standards” if it’s to get the go ahead for a UK launch, the Bank of England has said.
In its strongest intervention to date, the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) said Libra and rival digital currencies would have to show their financial and operational resilience and show enough transparency so they could be monitored.
These currencies, the FPC said, would have to show the same resilience as traditional banks.
But the FPC highlighted that Libra had the potential to become an “important payment system”.
“Libra has the potential to become a systematically important payment system. The FPC judges that such a system would need to meet the highest standard of resilience and be subject to appropriate oversight,” the FPC said.
“The terms of engagement for innovations such as Libra must be adopted in advance of any launch. UK authorities should use their powers accordingly.”
Facebook has said it plans to launch its digital currency in 2020, despite opposition from data protection and privacy authorities globally as well as regulators.
Facebook’s attempt to launch a global non-sovereign currency was doomed from the beginning for many reasons. While Facebook will continue to put a smiley face on Libra, in its current form, it is just not happening. And this is not just about Facebook’s penchant to abuse users’ data. It goes far beyond that.
The fact that most of the original Libra Association founders have abandoned the sinking Libra ship is indicative of the hubris of Facebook’s attempt to circumvent government’s with a private currency that is nothing like Bitcoin.
New Loans Latest
Project Rhapsody is now 72 per cent funded. The loan offer has an A risk rating, and provides a fixed-rate return of 8 per cent over five years.
Fuller detail is excerpted from the borrower’s offering on site below. The whole pitch – vetted according to our credit committee’s best efforts, though we cannot warrant the accuracy of the statements – is available to logged in users.
Historical Performance And IFISA Process Guide
That figure is the result of over £17 million of loans facilitated on the site, as we bring individuals looking for a good return on capital together with carefully vetted small companies seeking funds for growth. Bear in mind that lenders’ capital is at risk. Read warnings on site before committing capital.
All loans on site are eligible to be held in a Money&Co. Innovative Finance Individual Savings Account (IFISA), up to the annual ISA limit of £20,000. Such loans offer lenders tax-free income. Our offering is an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) that can hold the peer-to-peer (P2P) business loans that Money&Co. facilitates. For the purposes of this article, the terms ISA and IFISA are interchangeable.
So here’s our guide to the process:
The ISA allowance for 2019/20 is unchanged from last tax year at £20,000, allowing a married couple to put £40,000 into a tax-free environment. Over three years, an investment of this scale in two Money&Co. Innovative Finance ISAs would generate £8,400 of income completely free of tax. We’re assuming a 7 per cent return, net of charges and free of tax here.
Once you have made your initial commitment, you might then consider diversifying – buying a spread of loans. To do this, you can go into the “loans for sale” market. All loans bought in this market also qualify for IFISA tax benefits.
Risk: Security, Access, Yield
Do consider not just the return, but the security and the ease of access to your investment. We write regularly about these three key factors. Here’s one of several earlier articles on security, access and yield.