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David Marcus, the Chief of Facebook’s Financial Services Division, has disclosed that the Novi digital wallet is ready to enter the market. He unveiled this news through a blog post on August 18 while talking about the current state of the payments system in the US. Marcus believes that the payment infrastructure in the US is significantly flawed, and Facebook can help fix it.
In the blog post, Marcus said the current payment system is not interconnected. Additionally, it is slow and costly. As a result, approximately 1.7 billion people across the globe are still unbanked. Additionally, a larger fraction of the people with access to banking services is underserved. Marcus estimates that approximately 62 million Americans form part of the unbanked or underserved population.
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While he believes the COVID-19 pandemic pushed more people to embrace digital forms of payment, he believes businesses and policymakers need to be swift on their feet to ensure more people onboard the digital economy. According to him, America has taken a relaxed approach regarding embracing technologies that can help solve the above challenges.
Marcus believes the US should be at the forefront of financial innovation. However, he claims that the relaxed approach has seen the country relinquished its position to countries like China, which has achieved key milestones with its CBDC.
Novi comes to the rescue
Per Marcus, Facebook’s Novi Wallet offers an interoperable solution that lets people and small businesses transfer money locally and internationally quickly and affordably. He reiterated that Novi does not intend to launch on Diem, formerly Libra, without the necessary regulatory approvals. To this end, the Diem Association has been engaging in constructive dialogue with regulators and lawmakers across the globe.
Marcus pointed out that Novi has secured licenses in nearly all US states and does not intend to go live until it obtains the relevant clearances. While he believes the Diem Association has addressed all concerns about its intention to develop the Diem stablecoin and a compliant Payments network that would underpin it, the project has not yet received the green light to launch.
According to him, the main factor preventing the project from going forward is Facebook’s involvement. While regulators believe Facebook should not participate in the payments and financial services, Marcus pointed out that the organization has supported payments through Facebook Payments since 2009. As such, he believes Facebook deserves more credit, considering its payments system recorded a $100 billion (73.07 billion) volume in the last four quarters.