World-leading payment provider, PayPal, did not attend the latest meeting of the 28 Libra backers. Later a speaker of the company stated that PayPal will be officially withdrawing from the project as the pre-work done with regulators is not satisfactory.
The First Company to Pull Out
The spokesperson for PayPal informed CoinDesk in a statement the reasoning behind their withdrawal. The company has decided to not continue with its participation in the Libra project. PayPal will instead be concentrating on their current business priorities and goals. The representative of the major payment provider continued:
“We remain supportive of Libra’s aspirations and look forward to continued dialogue on ways to work together in the future. Facebook has been a longstanding and valued strategic partner to PayPal, and we will continue to partner with and support Facebook in various capacities.”
There were rumors surrounding other Libra supporters Visa, Mastercard and Stripe. Although there was insurance that the project did not harm their relationships with regulators, the controversy that Libra has with lawmakers worldwide is still evident. Stripe has denied any plans of making a withdrawal like PayPal. As a response to the payment providers leave from the group of backers, Libra Association responds with understanding as they are aware that reconfiguration of the financial system is a hard endeavor. The media giant is glad to know about the lack of commitment now, as they value it above anything else for this project.
More Information
As you may already know, earlier this year the social media giant, Facebook, announced their Libra project. It is planned to be a stablecoin meant for financial services to people that don’t have access to banks around the world. The project created a substantial backlash from regulators, claiming that Facebook might risk destabilization of the global monetary order.
On Friday, 4th October, the head of policy and communications of Libra, Dante Disparte, stated: “We recognize that change is hard, and that each organization that started this journey will have to make its own assessment of risks and rewards of being committed to seeing through the change that Libra promises. We look forward to the first Libra Council meeting in 10 days and will be sharing updates following that, including details of the 1,500 entities that have indicated enthusiastic interest to participate.”.