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Libra Association announces new board members after recent departures

Libra Association announces new board members after recent departures

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The inaugural meeting took place in Geneva on Monday

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Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

In Geneva on Monday, the remaining members of the Libra Association held their inaugural meeting, bringing together executives from more than 20 different companies across the world.

Much of the meeting was devoted to establishing the basic governance of the new association, which before Monday had been more of a proposal than a functional institution. The group named five board members — including Xapo CEO Wences Casares, Andreessen Horowitz partner and blockchain lead Katie Haun, and Facebook executive David Marcus, who has been the primary face of the project up until now.

“a world without financial borders, where everyone can prosper”

The members also laid out a number of bylaws describing the process for electing new board members, voting on proposals, and adjudicating disputes.

“Given the project’s scale and ambition, there are still a number of challenges to overcome,” Haun said in a statement, “including regulatory compliance.”

That compliance has been a particularly sore point for payment processors, many of whom left the association just days before the inaugural meeting. Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, and Mercado Pago were all initially signed on as founding members of the Libra Association, but none were present in Geneva, having dropped out in advance of the meeting.

Notably, the bylaws also spell out that any member of the association may leave for any reason, although transferring membership is only allowed under more limited circumstances.

Only one payment processor remains involved with the Libra Association: PayU, a Dutch company focused on mobile and web payments in the European market. PayU had declined to comment in the wake of the earlier departures, but affirmed their commitment to the project at Monday’s meeting. “The mission of the association,” PayU said in a statement, “aligns seamlessly with PayU’s vision of creating a world without financial borders, where everyone can prosper.”