PayPal Cautiously Believes in Libra’s Potential Despite Regulatory Concerns

Paypal, an American centralized payments services company has made it clear that it firmly believes in the potential of the social media giant’s global cryptocurrency project despite the intense scrutiny of governments and central banks on Libra, as well as the regulatory bottlenecks surrounding the cryptoasset, according to a Channelnewsasia report on September 14, 2019.

More Work to Be Done

Per the report, Paypal, one of the heavyweights that make up the Libra Association, a consortium that will govern the Libra ecosystem and make vital decisions pertaining to it, has expressed concerns over the future of Libra, a digital asset designed to foster financial inclusion for billions of unbanked people across the globe.

Gabrielle Rabinovitch, PayPal investor relations vice president has revealed that Paypal’s participation in the Libra project is a non-binding commitment and a lot of work will have to be done for the Libra dream to become reality, rather than just a thrilling idea.

PayPal Belives Libra Has Huge Potential

Notably, Rabinovitch stated that Libra’s goal of enabling millions of unbanked people in various nations to gain easy access to financial services is in line with PayPal’s ambition to serve the underserved and democratize access to capital.

“So we very much believe in the potential of Libra,” Rabinovitch said.

Though it’s still unclear whether project Libra will go live in 2020 as scheduled, plans to create a global currency that could potentially rival traditional fiat money and displace economies, have however kept central banks, governments, and regulators on their toes.

As BTCManager reported on September 11, 2019, the United States Treasury Under Secretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, has declared that Libra’s launch will not be authorized unless it complies with the Treasury’s strict regulatory standards checkmating money laundering and terrorist financing.

On the same note, central banks in various countries have been pointing their searchlights into Libra, as part of efforts to ensure the cryptocurrency does not empower bad actors.

The Swiss central bank says its dialoguing with financial watchdogs around the world concerning Libra, while Yves Mersch, an European Central Bank executive has stated categorically that Libra could undermine the Central Bank’s ability to set monetary policy.

That’s not all, French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire has also expressed similar concerns for Libra, hinting that Facebook’s cryptocurrency will not be allowed to operate in Europe.

Amidst this upheaval, Facebook remains unperturbed and the highly controversial tech big whale has pledged to do all it takes to make Libra work.

On September 12, 2019, reports emerged that Libra has applied for a payment system license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).