Libra Hires Former Credit Suisse Executive Saumya Bhavsar As New General Counsel

Facebook’s digital currency project Libra has hired Saumya Bhavsar, the former global head of regulatory affairs and data protection at Credit Suisse as the new general counsel for Libra Networks, a fully owned subsidiary of Libra Association. Libra network would be responsible for the rollout of the libra digital stable coin and the Novi digital wallet. The subsidiary would also be managing the operations of the payment system after rollout.

This is the second executive hiring within three months by the Libra Association, earlier in August the organization has hired former general counsel at the Homeland Security as their chief legal officer.

Libra is being seen as Facebook’s most ambitious outing in the wildly growing fintech industry. However, the projects has been marred into controversy ever since its announcement last year. The project was due for a launch early this year however due to heavy regulatory scrunity many key associate members including PayPal withdrew support from the project and Facebook had to call off the launch until further notice.

Libra has made some critical changes since calling off the launch that includes key changes to its white paper, hiring of new executives to help them shape their payment network better.

The newly appointed general counsel for the Libra Networks expressed her gratitude for the selection and talked about taking Libra payment networks to new highs. She said.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Libra Association as it progresses toward enabling a more inclusive global financial system. Along with many in the banking industry, I have been watching the Libra project from afar and believe the Libra payment system is poised to transform the industry and enable unprecedented financial innovation and inclusion at a time when we need it most.”

Bhavsar will be replacing Robert Werner who was the first general counsel of Libra Association and before taking charge at Libra, he had headed the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.