Stripe walks away from Facebook’s troubled libra project

Facebook’s ambitious efforts to establish a global digital currency called libra suffered severe setbacks on Friday, as major payment companies including Irish payments firm Stripe, Mastercard and Visa quit the group behind the project. The companies announced they would leave the association Friday afternoon, as did Ebay and Latin American payments company Mercado Pago. They join PayPal Holdings which exited the group a week ago, as global regulators continue to air concerns about the project.

The latest exodus leaves the libra association without any remaining major payments companies as members, meaning it can no longer count on a global player to help consumers turn their currency into libra and facilitate transactions. The remaining association members, including Lyft and Vodafone, consist mainly of venture capital, telecommunications, blockchain and technology companies,…