Visa and Mastercard are having doubts over their involvement with Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, according to sources with knowledge on the matter. The sources revealed that the firms did not want to be scrutinised by regulators and have apparently denied Facebook’s request to support Libra publicly.
Facebook’s Libra has attracted a lot of attention from banks and governments all around the world. At Neowin alone, we’ve reported that the People’s Bank of China is worried about the dollar’s influence on Libra, that Japan was investigating the cryptocurrency, and that a board member of the European Central Bank believes Libra could undermine monetary policy.
While things aren’t looking good for Facebook with regards to Visa and Mastercard, it has additional problems. A report from Bloomberg said that PayPal and Stripe are also undecided about formally signing on to Libra.
In June, Facebook announced that it was going to launch Libra. According to Reuters, Facebook was eyeing June for the currency’s release but with all the talk of regulation and partners backing out, Facebook’s plans could be significantly delayed.
Source: Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg (Yahoo) via: Reuters