Britain’s financial watchdog has warned that Facebook’s plans for its Libra cryptocurrency will not simply “walk through authorisation” and must be scrutinised.

Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), warned that Facebook's digital currency, which it plans to launch next year to provide digital trades and payments to potentially billions of users, had the potential to be “extremely significant” and raised “very big issues for the public policy world”.

Facebook announced its digital currency, called Libra, last week, as well as an app for consumers that will let people trade its Libra digital currency, making payments and sending money overseas.

But the plans have been met with immediate regulatory pressure in Europe and the US as policymakers grapple with the technology giants plans.

Mr Bailey told the Treasury Select Committee the FCA had been talking to Facebook about its plans, along with the Bank of England and the Treasury itself.

“We will have to engage domestically and internationally with Facebook and this organisation [the Libra Association] that has been set up,” Mr Bailey said, “because they are not going to walk through authorisation without that at all.”