The Facebook-backed project is reportedly poised to launch this year. The project has poached a roster of big names from banking as well as enforcement while scaling back its initial ambitions.
Libra may launch a regulated payments system by year-end, Swiss daily «Le Temps» in French) reported on Tuesday, without divulging how it reported the information. Libra, which recently dramatically scaled back on initial ambitions for a global cryptocurrency, wasn't immediately available for comment.
The project, led by Facebook veteran David Marcus and based in Geneva, has spent recent months poaching from banking rivals: it brought in Stuart Levey, a veteran of government service and of British bank HSBC, as CEO, former U.S. attorney Steve Bunnell legal chief, Credit Suisse crime-fighter Sterling Daines as head of its compliance.
Influential Policymakers
This month, Libra named James Emmett, an HSBC top banker, to run its network subsidiary, but didn't disclose how close it is to launch an operation. The project surprised Swiss officials, though the alpine nation has been broadly receptive to the nascent blockchain and crypto industry, while influential policymakers have been critical of Libra specifically.
Finma, Switzerland's financial regulator, said six months ago it is reviewing Libra's application to establish a payment system. Swiss officials put the kibosh on an original plan including ambitions for Libra's payment system to support single-currency stable coins as well as the multi-currency Libra payment tokens, as finews.com reported.
