Visa and Mastercard Participation in Libra is Unsure

Visa and Mastercard apear to be unsure whether they wish to participate in Facebook’s Libra project, Bloomberg reported on 2 October.

According to the publication, the two financial services corporations, and several other companies, are hesitating whether to follow Facebook’s plans.

“People familiar with the matter” have said that the companies, which originally wanted to act as nodes for Libra, are concerned that their reputation could suffer, since Libra has seen major scrutiny from regulators worldwide.

Bloomberg wrote:

“Executives at the payments companies believe Facebook oversold the extent to which regulators were comfortable with the project and are concerned about the perception that the social network hasn’t behaved responsibly in other areas.”

Last month a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, Yves Mersch, went as far as to say that Facebook’s Libra is “beguiling but treacherous”, and that it could destabilize the euro.

The French Economy and Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, also said that he plans to block the stablecoin in the E.U..

Another publication that claimed that Visa and Mastercard are second-guessing their involvement in Facebook’s cryptocurrency, this time from the Wall Street Journal, forced David Marcus to defend the project on Twitter:

This is not the first time we are hearing about companies considering pulling out of the project. In August, as previously reported, at least three companies were privately considering withdrawing their support due to pressure from regulators.