the association was in talks with regulators from Switzerland for a payments license. In May 2021, Diem announced that it had withdrawn its application to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority and said that it would instead seek approval with the US treasury to register as a money services business. Diem Association Facebook established the Libra Association (later renamed to Diem Association) to oversee the currency, founded in Geneva, Switzerland. As of December 2020, Diem Association includes: Payments: PayU Checkout.com Technology and marketplaces: Facebook's subsidiary Novi Financial, Farfetch, Lyft, Spotify, Uber, Shopify Telecommunications: Iliad SA Blockchain: Anchorage, Bison Trails, Coinbase, Xapo Venture capital: Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, Union Square Ventures, Slow Ventures, Temasek Holdings Nonprofit and multilateral organizations, and academic institutions: Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva, Mercy Corps, Women's World Banking, Heifer International Seven other companies had been named as Libra Association members in the initial June 2019 announcement, but left before the first Libra meeting on 14 October 2019: Booking Holdings, eBay, Mastercard, Mercado Pago, PayPal, Stripe and Visa Inc. Visa chairman and CEO Alfred F. Kelly clarified in July that Visa had not joined, but had signed a nonbinding letter of intent; and that "no one has yet officially joined." He said that factors determining whether Visa would, in fact, join included "the ability of the association to satisfy all the requisite regulatory requirements." Vodafone joined the association in October 2019, but left in January 2020, saying they preferred to work on their mobile banking subsidiary M-Pesa. Press coverage around the initial Libra announcement noted the absence of Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon and of any banks. Banking executives had been reluctant to join due to uncertainties surrounding regulation and feasibility of the scheme. In late February 2020, e-commerce site Shopify and cryptocurrency brokerage Tagomi joined. The association hopes to grow to 100 members with an equal vote. In late April 2020, the payment processing company, Checkout.com, announced they would be joining the association. In May 2020, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, cryptocurrency investor Paradigm and private equity firm Slow Ventures announced they would join the association. Libra Association was renamed to Diem Association on December 1, 2020, as part of the rebranding from Libra to Diem. Reception The project has faced criticism and opposition from central banks. The use of a cryptocurrency and blockchain for the implementation has been questioned. European Union regulatory response