Facebook-backed Libra Nabs New CEO From HSBC

Facebook’s global currency project is taking shape – Libra is poaching its first CEO from HSBC. The banker is impeccably connected in government circles.

It feels like Facebook is leaving nothing to chance in its renewed attempt to get Libra, a digital currency network, off the ground. The project sparked fierce regulatory and political opposition when it was unveiled last year.

The Geneva-based association which governs the project is naming Stuart Levey as its new CEO, effective this summer, it said in a statement. Levey has been HSBC’s legal chief for the past eight years and possesses impeccable credentials from a long career at the U.S. Treasury and the Justice Department.

Levey’s financial enforcement experience includes overseeing U.S. sanctions by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC and responsibility for U.S. civil anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN.

Three weeks ago, Libra said it is seeking a Swiss license for payments. I look forward to working closely with governments, regulators, and all of our stakeholders to realize this vision, Levey said in the statement.

This represents a massive scaling-back of the Facebook-backed project initial ambitions for a global digital currency. The original plan had not only wrong-footed Bern but raised hackles among policy- and lawmakers.