PayPal Quits Facebook Libra for China?

PayPal bails on Facebook immediately after becoming first foreign payment company in China; betting on China’s digital coin over Libra?

Just four days after PayPal announced it became the first foreign company to acquire a payments licence in China, it ditched the Facebook Libra consortium it was in. The Libra Association is composed of Facebook and 27 other companies and organizations, which includes PayPal’s rival Stripe.

Two days before PayPal bailed, The Wall Street Journal reported that Visa, Mastercard and other members of the consortium, were also “reconsidering their involvement following a backlash from U.S. and European government officials”.

PayPal’s vote in favor of Chinese communism?

Government regulation is the biggest stumbling block for Libra. A CNBC article that broke the PayPal withdrawal news said that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell raised “serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, financial stability” and that Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, said that Congress would “move aggressively” on the Libra issue so that it can be stopped until they “get a handle on this”.

In contrast, shortly after Facebook announced Libra, China sped up its own plans…