Facebook is meeting even more resistance to its Libra cryptocurrency as financial officials with some of the world’s biggest governments are expected this week to say Libra should not be allowed to go forward without stronger assurances that it won’t disrupt the international finance system.
A report from a task force made up of officials from the G7 group of nations is said to raise concerns about the safety, security and other issues surrounding the cryptocurrencies. According to the BBC, the task force, which includes top officials from several leading central banks, the International Monetary Fund, and the Financial Stability Board, will say in its report that new cryptocurrencies, like Libra, must have solid legal support, be unable to be used to pay for terrorist activities and money laundering, and not be able to become threats to the stability of national currencies.
The BBC said the G7 taskforce report will be given to finance ministers who are gathering at the IMF’s annual meetings this week.
Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment on the expected report.
Support for Libra has begun to weaken in recent weeks. On Oct. 4, payments processing company PayPal became the first major company to leave the Libra Association, an international business group that is being established to support Libra. PayPal’s departure opened the gates for others to pull their support for Libra: last week, eBay, financial technology startup Stripe, and credit card giants Visa and MasterCard all said they will not join the Libra Association.
On Monday, online travel reservation company Booking Holdings, which runs Booking.com, Kayak, and other online travel-related sites, said it would not give its support to the cryptocurrency project.
The drop in businesses backing Libra comes as the cryptocurrency has met resistance and hostility from several governments. France and Germany have both said they will work to block the use of Libra in Europe; U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has also expressed skepticism about Facebook’s cryptocurrency efforts.