Last Week five major payments providers pulled out last week, Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency project looked to be on the rocks.
Today the remaining members have insisted it’s full steam ahead. The 21 founding companies in the Libra Association met for the first time in Geneva on Monday.
Fearing regulators’ inquiries not just into their Libra involvement but the rest of their businesses – Visa, Stripe, eBay, PayPal, Mastercard, and Mercado Pago have all left the group for now. A letter sent on 8 October to the payments providers from US senators Brian Shatz and Sherrod Brown threatened –
“a high level of scrutiny from regulators not only on Libra-related payment activities, but on all payment activities”
This morning, it was revealed that Booking Holdings – the firm behind Booking.com – had also pulled out.
Netherlands-based PayU is the only remaining member operating in the online payments processing sector
Of the 21 companies, representatives from five of the firms were elected to form the Libra Association’s board, with Facebook’s David Marcus among them. Bertrand Perez, a former senior director at PayPal, was appointed chief operating officer and interim managing director.
The board would soon set up a search committee to appoint a permanent chief executive.
