Japan to lead development of SWIFT network for cryptocurrency

Facebook's recent announcement of plans to launch a digital coin has met with a chorus from regulators, central banks and governments insisting the tech giant must respect anti money-laundering rules and ensure the security of transactions and user data

Nothing to do with money-laundering. It has to do with taxes. The politicians want a chunk of YOUR hard-earned money for their salaries.

I guess, it's the "regulate" aspect that's all important here.

Convert all transactions to a known format, and then you needn't worry about whence they came - they're just another transaction.... but now the question of Digital Privacy comes into play... what right does the Japanese Government have to hold information about an individual based in another Country for a transactions that isn't Governed under Banking regulations ? (Should my Grocery store payments be subjected to Government Scrutiny ? Perhaps if I buy too many Condom packs, I would be deemed a threat to National "Health" Security !?)

SWIFT vs Block-Chain... ?

This is not SWIFT though

It's similar to SWIFT, but a different entity just for cryptocurrency

Won't work. SWIFT is fat and sluggish, any slight change takes years to implement. We have yet to see how SWIFT will address this.