Democratic senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Brian Schatz of Hawaii wrote letters to Visa, Mastercard Stripe asking that the firms rethink their membership in Facebook’s Libra Association, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday (Oct. 8).
The senators said that Libra is a risk to the payments business and to global financial networks. The legislators pointed to news articles that indicate Libra’s lack of transparency.
Banking Committee member Brown and panel member Schatz told Bloomberg their letter indicated that “Congress, financial regulators, and potential Libra Association member companies have struggled to get sufficient details from Facebook about risks that Libra may pose, including facilitating criminal and terrorist financing, destabilizing the global financial system, interfering with monetary policy, or exposing consumers to risks currently limited to accredited investors.”
PayPal left Libra on Oct. 4. The association is now comprised of 27 member firms, including Uber and Coinbase.