PayPal leaves Facebook-led Libra currency project

This article is more than 12 months old

Oct 07, 2019 06:00 am

WASHINGTON US payments processor PayPal Holdings said it was leaving Libra Association, the entity managing the Facebook-led effort to build a global digital currency, making it the first member to exit the group.

PayPal said it would forgo any further participation in the group and would instead focus on its own core businesses.

"We remain supportive of Libra's aspirations and look forward to continued dialogue on ways to work together in the future," PayPal said.

Said Libra: "The type of change that will reconfigure the financial system to be tilted towards people, not the institutions serving them, will be hard. Commitment to that mission is more important to us than anything else. We're better off knowing about this lack of commitment now, rather than later."

Facebook announced plans to launch the digital currency in June next year with other members of Libra, but the project ran into trouble with sceptical regulators globally. Reuters reported last week Facebook could push back the launch of Libra to tackle regulatory concerns.

Visa and Mastercard are also reconsidering their involvement in Libra as they do not want to attract regulatory scrutiny, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.