We’d love central bank experience

David Marcus, the Facebook exec who helped hatch its Libra digital currency project, said a managing director with experience in government and central banking would be a great leader for the independent group that will actually oversee the currency.

“We need someone who knows how economies tend to work, who understands how to operate in a very complex, decentralized governance type of environment,” Marcus told The Information in a Q&A published on Friday.

“And we need someone who has the gravitas to be able to carry the message on behalf of all the members — the hundred members and more of the association when this thing goes live — rather than have each and every one of us have piecemeal conversations left and right with all of the different governments and regulators that this whole network will be subject to.”

Last week, Facebook announced Libra, a digital currency the company has been building using blockchain technology. Facebook also announced the Libra Association, a nonprofit organization that will manage the digital currency, and Calibra, a digital wallet where Facebook users will be able to hold the currency.

In his Q&A, Marcus also denied a Tuesday New York Times report that banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase had rejected Facebook’s invitation to join the Libra Association.

“I want to absolutely and strongly deny the fact that we’ve approached banks and banks have said no,” Marcus said. “We have had conversations with banks. We still have conversations with banks. And my expectation is that by the time this thing launches next year you will have banks that are going to be members of this.”

You can read the full Q&A on The Information.

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