Libra Plays Down Troubles, Anticipates 100 Members by Launch

The Libra Association is still planning on launching with the 100 members initially envisioned in its June announcement, including new financial and banking partners. “We can confirm that the plan is to have up to 100 members,” a Libra Association representative told CoinDesk Monday at the formal charter signing in Geneva.

Bertrand Perez, chief operating officer and interim manager of the Libra Association, reiterated the position on CNBC, saying he remains “confident” that the recent departure of Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal, among others, will not throw a spanner into the network’s eventual launch. For now, the Facebook-led project has no banking partners among its 21 founding members who signed a charter earlier this week.

“There’s only one Visa, one Mastercard,” Perez said in an interview. “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.” The loss of the payments partners may slow the timeline, but the project is undeterred, he said: “With such a big project and the vision that we’re having, launching a few quarters later or before makes no real change.”

Calibra CEO and Libra Association board member David Marcus concurred with Perez on Twitter late last week as news broke of the departures. The Libra Association said some 1,500 firms have expressed interest in joining the project with about 180 meeting the given criteria. Fourteen of the original 21 members must agree to each new party joining the project, however.