UK Standard Chartered lobbyist reportedly set to join Facebook to help with cryptocurrency launch

Facebook has hired a UK Standard Chartered lobbyist as its London-based director of public policy, as per the Financial Times. Ed Bowles, who worked at StanChart for 12 years and holds the position of European head of corporate and public affairs, will join the social media giant in September to help push its cryptocurrency, the report said. 

Facebook is preparing for the launch of its cryptocurrency and payment platform and is reportedly talking to regulators so that it can ensure its services are compliant to the existing regulations. Due to a number of privacy-related scandals, regulators are concerned about whether Facebook will be able to comply with anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules financial institutions need to follow.

However, the European Commission’s director-general for financial stability Olivier Guersent claims he knows nothing about any meetings between Facebook and the EU regulators. 

“Facebook has a right like anyone else to launch itself on the market,” he told the FT. “But the issue is really the connection with the rest of their activities and the collection of data. That’s the angle through which we could tackle it.”

Although the white paper hasn't been published yet, Facebook has reportedly managed to attract big names to its new cryptocurrency project, including Visa, Mastercard and PayPal. According to previous reports, each company will invest $10 million into an independent foundation that will govern Facebook's coin.