Shaping Financial Services for Changing Times: Trinity of Banking, Fintech, and Blockchain Innovations

Minakshi Yerra is Chief Compliance Officer (board-appointed BSA & OFAC Officer) at Ripple. She has over 20 years of International Banking, Fintech, Payments, and Cryptocurrency experience, specializing in the areas of Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Economic Sanctions, Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF), Fraud, Trade Finance, and General Compliance.

She specializes in developing Financial Crime Compliance (FCC), Licensing Compliance, and General Compliance programs, policies, procedures and developing internal controls for Banks, Fintechs, Non-Bank Financial Institutions, and Cryptocurrency companies. Having served as Manager of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and Deputy U.S. Head of Economic Sanctions Investigations at HSBC Bank while the Bank was under a Department of Justice (DOJ) deferred prosecution agreement, she handled multiple high-profile FIU investigations and sanctions breach cases; conducted large-scale transactional lookbacks; provided sanctions advisory to U.S. and non-U.S. business units on complex FCC matters; drafted quarterly reports of HSBC’s potential sanctions evasion cases to the DOJ, District Attorney of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Minakshi’s most recent work includes scaling compliance programs for complex cryptocurrency and payments products, implementing new technology to mitigate AML and sanctions risks when moving funds cross-border using distributed ledger technology, developing FCC roadmaps for the licensing compliance team across various jurisdictions, and advising business teams on new product launches. She also oversees vendor risk management, third-party & counterparty risk, business continuity & disaster recovery, and conflicts of interest program.

Before Ripple, Minakshi worked at HSBC, Wells Fargo and LendingClub. Minakshi holds a Master of Laws degree specializing in International Banking & Finance from Queen Mary University of London. She is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and a Certified Forensic Accountant (Georgetown University). She is passionate about crypto and speaks at various cryptocurrency conferences, discussing emerging AML and sanctions regulations and the new challenges impacting the crypto and blockchain industries.

Matt is an Executive Vice President and Chief BSA/AML and Sanctions Compliance Officer at M&T Bank in Buffalo, New York. He has over 19 years of experience in the anti-financial crimes space serving in various capacities including roles in operations, strategy and senior management in the financial services industry.

Matt’s areas of specialization include Legal and Regulatory Financial Crimes Compliance, US and International Sanctions, Criminal Investigation and Law Enforcement Engagement and related trial practice. Matt is a renowned business development professional.

Matt is also an experienced attorney, having served as a federal prosecutor and Senior Trial Attorney for the Money Laundering and Bank Integrity Unit with the U.S. Department of Justice. He holds a Doctor of Law (J.D.) focused in Criminal Law from George Mason University School of Law and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist.

Carolyn is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Canaria, a consulting firm specializing in the development of regulatory compliance programs for Web3 firms. She has over 18 years of experience in financial crime compliance, including in traditional finance and fintech settings, and has been in the crypto space for nearly a decade. Since founding Canaria in 2019, Carolyn and her team have helped design, implement, and enhance the compliance programs of top crypto firms, including Ripple, OKX, and NEAR.

Veronica is a seasoned compliance professional with 25 years of experience with mid-size financial institutions, ranging from financial operations and client onboarding to remediation efforts. She is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS). She brings vast experience in BSA/AML and Sanctions risk management, including Suspicious Activity Monitoring, High-Risk Customer Management, Screening, KYC, Fraud, and Regulatory Enforcement Actions. Additionally, her experience includes the implementation of RPA, ML, and AI solutions.

For the past eight years, Veronica has been leading the development and implementation of effective and efficient BSA/AML/OFAC/FIU units with a focus on monitoring, investigating, and identifying potentially suspicious transactions and reporting to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).