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Tag: libra

  • Libra Poaches Top Credit Suisse Crime-Fighter

    Libra Poaches Top Credit Suisse Crime-Fighter

    The bank’s top anti-money laundering executive is leaving for Facebook-backed payments project Libra.

    Sterling Daines is leaving Credit Suisse for Libra, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The bank had poached Daines three years ago from Goldman Sachs to run its financial crime compliance, or FCC, activities under top compliance boss Lydie Hudson.

    He is the latest representative from traditional finance to head for Libra, an upstart payments system governed by a Swiss-based association. Last month, Libra said it is hiring HSBC’s top lawyer Stuart Levey as its CEO, and also tapped the weighty support of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.

    Neither Daines nor Libra responded to a request for comment. A 2018 sanction from Swiss watchdog Finma for several money-laundering scandals fell in the early days of Daines’ tenure at Credit Suisse.

    The Swiss bank is poised to replace him with Tam Ludford, a 12-year Credit Suisse veteran who will add the job to his current role as global head of core compliance, surveillance, and investigations.

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  • Facebook-backed Libra Nabs New CEO From HSBC

    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.

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  • The Impact of Libra and Alipay on Monetary Policy

    The Impact of Libra and Alipay on Monetary Policy

    Digital payment systems such as Libra and Alipay may eventually weaken traditional tools of monetary policy. In doing a good job, central banks can prevent this from happening though, according to a high-ranking Swiss central banker.

    The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is currently engaged in a fight against an appreciation of the Swiss franc and – presumably – is spending huge amounts of money on the purchase of euros and dollars. A fight against all odds it seems – and with the emergence of Alipay or eventually even Libra, the risk is that traditional means of monetary policy lose their effectiveness.

    Once such a purely digital means of payment takes on the role of a trading currency across national borders, central banks are faced with a set of whole new questions.

    It is clear that it would become more difficult to implement the monetary policy if a major part of payments in Switzerland is conducted in another currency than the franc, said Thomas Moser, member of the enlarged governing board of the SNB.

    Moser is convinced that central banks can meet the challenges by simply doing a good job, and thereby prevent people from opting for alternative means of payment. But, at the moment, the bank estimates that the introduction of digital central bank money for consumers would entail hardly an advantage, but major risks.

    The emergence of such means of payment is closely linked to the Blockchain, which is the focus of the second wave of digitization and decentralization. The Blockchain-enabled things beyond our imagination, Moser said. «Today as then, expectations were exaggerated. But in the long run, the consequences are underestimated.»

    Central banks and governments are keen to provide a legal framework for such new projects and to make them conform to the current regulation in a bid to enable the financial market to exploit the new opportunities arising.

  • Facebook reveals its new digital currency called Libra

    Facebook reveals its new digital currency called Libra

    As expected, Facebook announced a brand new cryptocurrency coming in 2020 – Libra. Described as a new digital wallet for new digital currency, the new financial service will allow consumers to keep their cryptocurrency safe, as well as make various transactions.

    When it launches in 2020, the digital wallet will be available in Messenger, WhatsApp, but also as a standalone app. The decision to launch such a service is based on the people’s need to save, send or spend money even if they don’t have a bank account.

    Apparently, many people around the world still don’t benefit from even basic financial services, especially in developing countries. Calibra, the company behind the financial service, is meant to address this problem since it will allow those who don’t have a bank account to save, send and spend Libra.

    Most importantly, Calibra will allow users to send Libra to almost anyone with a smartphone just like sending a text message. Additional services will be provided to those using Libra later on, including the option to pay their bills.

    Facebook says that Calibra will not share account information or financial data with its servers or any third party without customer consent. Furthermore, the social network company mentions that Calibra will use Facebook data to comply with the law, secure customers’ accounts and prevent criminal activity.

    It remains to be seen what merchants will accept Facebook’s new crypto currency and how companies in developing countries will be convinced to pay their workers in Libra if they so choose.

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