“We highly respect the vision of the Libra Association; however, eBay has made the decision to not move forward as a founding member. At this time, we are focused on rolling out eBay’s managed payments experience for our customers.” a company spokesperson said in a statement to the Financial Times.
Payments group Stripe said in a statement: “Stripe is supportive of projects that aim to make online commerce more accessible for people around the world. Libra has this potential. We will follow its progress closely and remain open to working with the Libra Association at a later stage.”
The move, a major blow to Facebook’s ambitions to shake up the global payments market, comes exactly a week after PayPal announced it was also pulling out. The decisions follow intense scrutiny from regulators and politicians, some of which have called for the project to be stopped altogether, citing money laundering concerns and worries about wider financial stability.
It was also announced this week that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, is going to testify in front of Congress about the plans later this month.
The Libra alliance, a group largely made up of finance and technology companies, had each decided to put at least $10m behind the scheme. Members are meeting in Geneva on Monday to nominate the board for the project.
A Libra spokesperson said: “We look forward to the inaugural Libra Association council meeting in just three days and announcing the initial members of the Libra Association.”
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