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Singapore’s Temasek Joins Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency Project

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Singapore’s Temasek, which is among the largest institutional investment firms globally, has thrown its weight behind the under fire Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project.  The state-backed investment firm is the latest organization to join the Libra Association.

After losing key partners due to regulatory concerns over Libra, the Libra Association announced the addition of Temasek and two more new members on May 14. The other inclusions are digital currency investment firm Paradigm and private equity firm Slow Ventures. 

Singapore’s Temasek becomes first Libra Association member from Asia

Besides being the first state-backed company to join, Thursday’s inclusion of Temasek to the Libra Association made the investment firm the first Asia-based member. Singapore is widely acknowledged as the financial technology hub of Asia. In addition, the country’s administration is very supportive of cryptocurrency related technology, and financial technology innovations.

Facebook revealed its Libra cryptocurrency project back in 2019; as an international digital payments platform that will be backed by multiple fiat currencies. Nevertheless, Facebook’s cryptocurrency idea was heavily scrutinized by regulators globally, who were worried the cryptocurrency would disrupt the financial system; giving a firm with privacy scandals total control over people’s resources. 

Temasek among Libra Association’s key members

Following the scrutiny by the U.S government and various other governments, a number of high profile companies have pulled out from the project.Global firms such as MasterCard, Visa, Vodafone, PayPal and others have abandoned the Libra cryptocurrency project. As a result, Singapore’s Temasek is now one of the most significant members of the Libra Association; with a portfolio value of about $219 billion.

“Our participation in the Libra Association as a member will allow us; to contribute towards a regulated global network for cost effective retail payments,” Chia Song Hwee; the deputy CEO at Temasek, highlighted in a statement. “Many developments in the space excite us – we look forward to further exploring the potential of the technology.”

 

Vodafone Becomes Next Major Player To Quit Facebook’s Libra; States Focus on ‘M-Pesa’ as Reason

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Regulatory authorities have always determined the fate of several cryptocurrency companies and as time passes the rules have become more and more stringent.  When Facebook decided to launch its own cryptocurrency last year, it did so with a lot of backers in its kitty. But looks like things are changing now.

According to recent reports, Facebook’s Libra has lost yet another partner in between a maelstrom of regulatory uncertainty. This comes after months of open-ended discussions about the much talked about cryptocurrency.

On January 22nd, Vodafone announced that it was pulling out of the Libra project. After this, the British telecommunication giant becomes one of the names joining Paypal and Mastercard as they leave the Libra family. An official statement from the company said:

“Vodafone Group has decided to withdraw from the Libra Association. We have said from the outset that Vodafone’s desire is to make a genuine contribution to extending financial inclusion.We remain fully committed to that goal and feel we can make the most contribution by focusing our efforts on [mobile payments platform] M-Pesa.”

M-Pesa is a money platform for smartphones with a massive presence in developing countries such as Kenya. Vodafone has stated that it wants to elevate M-Pesa’s 30 million users across 10 countries.

Once Vodafone’s exodus was announced, Libra took measures to show that there were no problems within its doors. To put out the growing fires, Dante Disparte, the head of policy and communications for the Libra association gave his two cents on the future of Facebook’s cryptocurrency.

Disparte claimed that the organization would continue to stick to its core values and deliver products. He candidly admitted that the makeup of the Association members may change over time but that was “only natural”.

Vodafone has joined payments giants such as Mastercard and Visa as companies that backed out of the Libra project. The debit and credit card giants had decided to leave back in October 2019, mainly pointing at the giant cloud of regulatory uncertainty. Both the companies had quit the roster a  few days before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the House Committee on Financial Services.

Several regulators have raised multiple concerns over Libra and that has been the major obstacle impeding its launch. Libra was supposed to launch in early 2020 but looking at the problems within its system, it looks like it will be more delayed. Libra had also lost Mercado Pago, a Latin American payments company towards the fag end of 2019.

Although Visa and Mastercard pulled out, a spokesperson from the former stated that there were other options in the works. According to him, Visa was appreciative of what Facebook was doing and remain open to working with Libra at a much later stage.