The Libra Association, which manages Facebook’s digital currency project, has appointed a former chief executive at HSBC to lead Libra Networks.

The independent member organisation, which was set up to oversee the rollout of Libra stablecoin, said James Emmett would take up the role on 1 October.

He joins after a 25-year career at HBSC, during which he held the chief executive role in Europe, responsible for HSBC's UK wholesale bank and operations across the continent, as well as sub-Saharan Africa and Bermuda.

Previous roles at the company include serving as the chief executive of HSBC in Turkey, global head of trade and receivables finance, regional president for New York retail and small business banking, and senior roles in strategy and business management.

Emmett is the latest high-profile name to join the Libra project in the last year, after the appointment of Sterling Daines, a managing director and global head of financial crime compliance at Credit Suisse, as its new chief compliance officer, and HSBC’s chief legal officer Stuart Levey, as its first chief executive.

Commenting on the appointment, Levey said: "James is a first-class financial services executive with deep substantive expertise and operational experience - I am excited that he is joining us and confident that his leadership will help make Libra's vision a reality."

First announced last June, the Libra Association’s mission is to enable a blockchain-based global payment system and financial infrastructure.

On April 16, the Libra Association - headquartered in Geneva - formally initiated the payment system licensing process with Swiss financial regulator FINMA. It also released an updated white paper and announced that the near-term operating expenses of the Libra Association have now been funded by its members.

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