Geneva (AFP)

The association Libra, which must manage the future virtual currency desired by Facebook, was officially set up Monday by 21 founding members, told AFP on Monday night to Tuesday the secretary general of this association, Bertrand Perez .

By signing the Libra Charter on Monday, these companies have become "members of the Libra Council, the body responsible for the governance of the association," a statement said. Mr. Perez congratulated AFP for having "today 21 fully motivated members, who believe in the project".

"We have a total guarantee of their involvement from this day, so we are confident enough for the project," he continued, saying the recent defections of Paypal, Visa, Mastercard or eBay no did not begin the determination of Libra initiators.

"What is certain is that for us it does not change anything in relation to the project," he said.

The digital currency Libra must offer an alternative mode of payment to traditional banking channels, an upheaval that raises skepticism and resistance.

If a launch was originally planned for mid-2020, this context of distrust leads Mr. Perez not to rule out a later start.

"Today, Libra is a significant change, a real paradigm shift and we are here to do things in the right direction," said the one who was elected Monday secretary general of the association.

- Launch date postponed? -

"What we want is to build a platform that is solid, that is there to last and that will survive in the long term." In this perspective, (...) if the discussions that we are in the process to have with the regulators require more time, because we have more things to deepen, more things to bring and we must postpone the launch date of a few quarters, I would say that at the scale of 'a project like this, it's not going to be a problem for us,' he said.

Among the 21 founding members of Libra, are the PayU online payment company, the Vodafone and Iliad telecommunications groups, the Uber, Spotify and Farfetch platforms, blockchain players such as Anchorage, Xapo and Coinbase. venture capitalists like Andreessen Horowitz, Ribbit Capital or non-profit organizations like Kiva or Mercy Corps.

At Monday's meeting, the Libra Board of Directors also set up a five-person board of directors.

Perez says other companies "have expressed interest in joining the association," saying he was "totally optimistic" about counting, as announced, an association of about 100 members at the launch.

The project is provoking, however, in the United States as in Europe, the growing hostility of many regulators and governments who are worried about Facebook's bad reputation for confidentiality and the protection of personal data, and fear that Libra will be used to deceive the taxman.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg will be convened on Oct. 23 by a US parliamentary committee who wants to review the project.

In Europe, Bruno Le Maire, French Minister of the Economy and Finance, in particular, warned that the Libra represented, according to him, a threat to the "monetary sovereignty of the States".

- "Opposition phase" -

For Mr Perez, it is important to distinguish in this respect the policy dimension and the regulatory dimension.

With these, the discussions are "constructive" and "we see that we can provide answers," he says. "It may take a little while to formalize and reassure them, but it's going in the right direction," he says.

To the politicians, Mr. Perez responds: "What is certain is that we are really determined that the solution we propose really makes sense for many people in the world, that it brings a real added value and answers that are not made today. "

"Any innovation is always disturbing and will always disturb people or systems that will try to oppose but passed an opposition phase, no real innovation could be stopped because from the moment it makes sense it will inevitably appear ", wants to believe the secretary general of the association Libra.

© 2019 AFP