Mastercard on why it left Libra / eToro CEO / China, not Libra, is the threat

Inside Libra presented by The Motley Fool.

Presented by Subscribe | View in browser 1. Mastercard has explained in an interview why it stepped away from Facebook's Libra. According to Ari Sarker, the co-president of Mastercard Asia Pacific, the multinational financial services corporation left the project because "basic core tenets were not being adhered to." Explaining further, Sarker highlighted that as a regulated business, Mastercard has commitments across its regulated frameworks and that it would be staying true to them. It was implied that Facebook wasn't living up to those expectations and that it wasn't ready to form part of a global financial network. –COIN GEEK       2. Yoni Assia, CEO of social investment platform eToro, has said in an interview that the company is a big fan of Facebook's Libra stablecoin. Assia believes that eventually, Libra will have a stablecoin in every country, "where you have regulated money issuers issuing it on the Libra blockchain." In his opinion, this is a more decentralized way of developing a global payment network that all Facebook users can use. Last month, Assia said that it was "inevitable" that central banks will launch digital currencies. Talking about this again in his interview yesterday, he went on to reiterate a similar sentiment. –DECRYPT       A MESSAGE FROM THE MOTLEY FOOL This stock could be like buying Amazon – in 1997 David Gardner, the investor who's tripling the returns of the market, just recommended a new stock… and he thinks it has the potential for Amazon-like returns. This is only the 5th time in 16 years he's recommended a stock like this. Click here to learn more. 3. In this opinion piece published in The Guardian, Kenneth Rogoff, a professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University, has said that a Chinese digital currency is the real threat and not Libra. The author of many books, including The Curse of Cash, wrote that a U.S.-regulated digital currency could be traceable by U.S. authorities; however, when it comes to the control of the underground economy, a state-backed Chinese digital currency could play a role in criminal activities, tax evasion, and terrorism. As Rogoff stated, "the U.S. would have far fewer levers to pull." While a Chinese digital currency could be banned by Western regulators, that wouldn't stop it from being used in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, which, in turn, see some underground demand in Europe and the U.S., he added. –THE GUARDIAN       4. A survey has found that 76 percent of German bankers believe that Libra could negatively impact the nation's monetary system. Conducted by the Center for Financial Studies (CFS) of Frankfurt's Goethe University, six percent of bankers think it could have serious effects on the stability of the economy. Notably, though, 61 percent said they would oppose placing a ban on it. According to the survey, while they believed Libra could potentially do more harm than good, they were also of the opinion that the government could allow it on a strict monitoring basis. Hubertus Väth, the head of the banking lobby Frankfurt Main Finance, said that this report proves the "financial industry is open to innovation." –BE IN CRYPTO       5. Christian Catalini, the head economist at Calibra, the Facebook subsidiary in charge of Libra's launch, said that users' social media information and financial data will be separate. Speaking during an interview with MIT's Sloan School of Management, Catalini said that people want a separation between the two. Going further, he added that from Facebook's point of view, the idea isn't to use the data to show more ads, but to compete with other features. –MIT MANAGEMENT SLOAN SCHOOL       6. Zhou Xiaochuan, former governor of the People's Bank of China (PBoC), has said that Libra would be trusted if an organization such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was running it. In a tweet, Xiaochuan said that "people will question the motive of Libra as it's initiated by a private company." He further said that the Libra Association is likely to make a profit from the project, with the money used for things such as other financial services. –COINTELEGRAPH       7. Christopher J. Giancarlo, former chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has stated that Libra has suffered because of Facebook's mismanagement of personal data. He went on to say that if it was any other organization handling it, it would have "received a better reception than this." –AMBCRYPTO       This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter. Edited by Inside Dev and Inside Deals editor Sheena Vasani.       Ad If you want to invest better, you want The Motley Fool.

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