The Libra Association announced on Tuesday that it has appointed Robert Werner as its General Counsel, to help guide the non-profit as it tries to get regulators onboard the proposed digital currency of Facebook.
Werner joins the independent member organisation with a lot of experience in regulatory, financial crime compliance and enforcement, having worked in both the public and private sectors.
Before joining the Libra Association as General Counsel, Werner was the founder and CEO of GRH Consulting. During his career, he has held leadership positions at several well-known financial institutions, including HSBC and Goldman Sachs, where he was the Enterprise Executive for Policy, Privacy and Regulatory Relations. Werner also led financial crime compliance for Merrill Lynch.
Commenting on his new role, Werner said in the statement: “I am grateful for the opportunity to join the Libra Association, as we work to transform the global payments landscape to empower billions of people.
“I have dedicated my career to combating financial crime and helping complex organizations achieve regulatory compliance, both in government and in the private sector. I look forward to meaningfully contributing to such an impactful project.”
During his career, Werner has served at the highest levels of the United States Department of the Treasury as the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, (FinCEN). He was also on the Board of Directors of Deutsche Bank Trust Company and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas.
Libra Association working with FINMA
Werner joins the Libra Association after the company started the payment system licensing process with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) on the 16th of April, 2020.
Furthermore, the Libra Association has released an updated white paper, in which Facebook has made a number of compromises in order to get regulators more on board with the project.
According to the cover letter that accompanied the newest version of the whitepaper, Facebook says that it will be “enhancing the safety of the Libra payment system with a robust compliance framework” and “building strong protections into the design of the Libra Reserve.” However, perhaps the most significant departure that Libra 2.0 takes from the first version of the project is the movement away from a ‘single token’ model.
(Photo: flickr)
