Libra hires another former FinCEN official as general councilor

Libra hires another former FinCEN official as general adviser - libraThe Swiss-based association that manages the Facebook-led Libra project added a former U.S. government official as its general adviser.

A new member for the legal sector of the Libra Association

Announced this week by the Libra Association, Robert Werner joins the project with "a broad range of experience in regulatory compliance, financial crime compliance and law enforcement" from his previous roles as director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Werner also served as senior adviser to the Undersecretary for the Treasury, Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and was assistant general counsel in the Enforcement and Intelligence division at the Office of the General Council.

The new addition to the association marks Libra's second hiring of a former FinCEN official after Stuart Levey was hired as the first CEO in early May.

Levey - who is leaving HBSC for the new role - should join "by the end of the summer" to oversee Libra's efforts to "combine technological innovation with a solid regulatory and compliance framework".

A move to get closer "to the operational phase of the project"

The company therefore aims at the new member to strengthen itself in the path it is structuring to obtain authorizations and to become part of the international regulatory process. It is no coincidence that his appointment comes a few weeks after the application for a license to FINMA, the Swiss authority for the regulation of financial markets.

In mid-April, in fact, the Libra Association kicked off the process of applying for a license for a payment system with FINMA - a move that it claimed was "an important milestone as the Association moves towards a more of the project ".

The latest moves of the Libra Association are strategically aimed at sheltering the problems that have not been lacking to date. After the wave of failures in previous attempts to regulate the original project of a stablecoin anchored to a basket of currencies, the plan officially lightened in April and will now develop a number of stablecoins in each representing a different fiat currency.

"Transforming the global payments landscape"

Prior to joining Libra, Werner was also a founder and CEO of GRH Consulting and had held senior positions in financial companies including HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. "I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of the Libra Association as we work to transform the global payments landscape to empower billions of people," Werner said in the announcement.

“I have dedicated my career to fighting financial crime and helping complex organizations achieve regulatory compliance, both in the government and in the private sector. I am looking forward to contributing significantly to such an incisive project. "

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