GENEVA, Switzerland–Even as numerous companies announce they are withdrawing from the Libra Association created by Facebook to help lead the company’s cryptocurrency initiative, a top executive with the Association said he is “confident” 100 members will join the group by the time the digital currency launches.
In an interview with CNBC, Bertrand Perez, chief operating officer and interim managing director of the Libra Association, said companies including “banking and financial institutions” continue to express interest in joining Libra.
As CNBC noted, there are currently no banks among the 21 founding members of the Libra Association, and Visa and Mastercard are among the companies that have recently announced they are exiting the effort.
‘Reputable’ Companies Are Involved
“There’s only one Visa, one Mastercard, I will not tell you that we have the equivalent, but I will tell you that we have reputable companies that are also very active in the financial and banking space,” Perez told CNBC.
Perez did not provide the names of any specific companies to CNBC, but said the association would be making announcements about its membership in the coming months. He added the timeline for the launch of libra, which Facebook originally targeted for the first half of next year, could be moved as the group works to comply with regulations, CNBC reported.
In an earlier interview with CNBC, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said some of the companies that left the project “got concerned” they couldn’t meet strict regulatory standards. As CUToday.info has reported, Libra is receiving strong scrutiny from regulators around the world, and Facebook President Mark Zuckerberg is to appear before Congress later this month.
First Meeting Held
The 21 remaining founding members of the Libra Association met earlier in Geneva to elect a board of directors and sign a charter committing to the proposed digital currency called Libra. The five-person board includes David Marcus, head of Libra at Facebook, along with executives from Andreessen Horowitz, fintech start-up PayU, non-profit Kiva Microfunds and blockchain firm Xapo Holdings.