Facebook’s plans for a global cryptocurrency, Libra, will warrant close scrutiny by governments across the world, according to one of the UK’s most senior financial regulators.

Christopher Woolard, the executive director of strategy and competition at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted a series of potential issues with the digital currency, from consumer protection and privacy concerns to financial market stability.

Facebook hopes to roll out Libra in June 2020, allowing more than 2bn monthly users worldwide to carry out financial transactions using the platform for the first time in a direct threat to the existing banking system.

Speaking at a conference in Cambridge, Woolard said: “Its size and scale will pose questions for society and government more generally about what is acceptable and desirable in this space.”

Randal Quarles, the head of the Financial Stability Board, last week said that more widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies would require the attention of the global regulatory body.

The threat to financial stability posed by Libra will probably come under particular scrutiny because of the high volatility in the prices of other cryptocurrencies.

The price of bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency that popularised decentralised ledger technology, has fluctuated wildly in recent weeks after Facebook’s Libra announcement.

The price of one bitcoin fell below $10,000 (£7,900) at points on Tuesday, well below last month’s peak of $13,880. As recently as March, it was trading below $4,000.

The FCA and other regulators have met Facebook representatives to discuss the plans, but analysts still have a wide variety of questions about the legal and practical details of Libra.

Woolard said the regulator would look at whether Libra and other cryptoassets functioned in similar ways to other regulated investment vehicles. He suggested that tech firms could expect a high level of scrutiny when entering the financial sector.

“Historically, this may have been a sector that has lived by the mantra of ‘move fast and break things’, but the issues raised here require deep thought and detail,” he said. “There is a finite amount of learning through failing fast that can be tolerated when consumers are at risk of harm.”

That warning echoed comments made last month by the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, who said he would not allow a payments network that became a haven for criminals and terrorists.