The project, more than a year in the making and including 27 partners, was immediately met with criticism from politicians in the US, Australia and Europe. Some representatives in Washington questioned whether it would have appropriate oversight, while the French finance minister said he was concerned about money laundering and terrorism finance.

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In Australia, the corporate watchdog - the Australian Securities and Investments Commission - has urged the $US540 billion company to "come and talk to us" about the planned currency.

The Reserve Bank said it is also closely watching developments. The competition regulator, which is investigating Facebook as part of a wide-ranging probe, the financial crimes watchdog AUSTRAC, and a top privacy agency also expressed caution over Facebook's announcement.

In a Wednesday statement, the US Senate Banking Committee said it had scheduled a July 16 hearing that will focus on "examining Facebook's proposed digital currency and data privacy considerations."

Senator Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the banking panel, is among politicians who've expressed skepticism that the tech giant can protect consumers' financial data following allegations that it failed to safeguard users' personal information.

Facebook has said the new digital token, named Libra, isn't expected to launch until at least next year.

"We announced this early," Sandberg said. "We know this is a heavy, heavily regulated space. We need to talk to people, meet with people and that's what we're doing and we are then going to launch."

Bloomberg, with BusinessDay