The Facebook-created digital currency Libra has unveiled HSBC legal chief and former George W Bush-era terrorism finance tsar Stuart Levey as its first chief executive.
Mr Levey, who as US under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in the mid-2000s was credited with helping to bring Iran to the negotiating table on nuclear power, has headed HSBC’s legal team for the past eight years. He will start his new job in July, based in Washington DC, the Libra Association announced on Wednesday.
A key challenge he will face will be convincing regulators and politicians that the digital currency project will not become a haven for drug dealers and money launderers.