Crypto bank Anchorage names execs to compliance, BSA posts

Crypto bank Anchorage Digital announced eight executive moves Tuesday designed to boost the company’s compliance.

The bank hired Mark duBose to serve as its chief compliance and risk officer. He previously filled similar roles at Circle and Centre, and spent two years as Santander’s Boston-based chief operational risk officer. He also worked for four years as a senior vice president at Bank of America, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Rachel Anderika, previously Anchorage’s chief risk officer, will become the bank’s chief operating officer. In that role, she will manage Anchorage’s day-to-day bank operations, including new asset support, tech infrastructure, model development and planning, the bank said.

Anchorage hired Dustin Palmer to serve as its interim Bank Secrecy Act officer. Palmer comes to the digital bank from Berkeley Research Group, where he serves as managing director of its financial institutions advisory service. Anchorage wants Palmer to further develop its anti-money laundering controls. Palmer has significant legal experience in government, having served as an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security and as a senior adviser to the Treasury Department’s general counsel on financial crimes enforcement, AML and countering the financing of terrorism, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Anchorage also hired Frieder Weichelt as its chief information security officer. Weichelt previously served as chief risk officer at the crypto platform BitGo.

The executive moves come roughly nine months after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ordered Anchorage to overhaul its AML program and hire a BSA officer. The regulator found the bank failed to implement internal controls for customer due diligence and procedures for monitoring suspicious activity. Anchorage also had failed to implement adequate BSA training for its staff, the OCC said.

In a statement Tuesday, the bank affirmed it has “set out to meet the highest regulatory requirements, and [is] committed to continuing to work aggressively to do so.”

“We’re reinforcing our commitment to strong regulatory standards and controls today by ushering in new leadership and capabilities that advance a forward-thinking path for regulated crypto,” the bank said.

Anchorage became the first crypto firm to receive a national trust bank charter in January 2021.

For his part, Anchorage CEO Nathan McCauley touched on the timeliness of the C-suite changes.

“Recent market events have reaffirmed what we have long believed: that security and regulation are key to increasing trust in the crypto economy,” he said Tuesday. “Selecting a federal charter has been the cornerstone of our mission to best protect our clients, and we believe the addition of these members to our team is just the latest step in our longstanding commitment to compliant, secure-by-design digital asset banking.”

The bank named four other executives to new roles Tuesday. Mo Abdoolraman, an alum of Chime, Goldman Sachs and Citi, will serve as Anchorage’s interim head of know-your-customer. 

Daniel Sankey will lead Anchorage’s financial intelligence unit. Sankey previously served as head of financial crimes compliance at Brex and has held various BSA compliance, reporting and investigative roles at Coinbase, Square and Wells Fargo. 

Anchorage also named Scott Schwartz as its deputy BSA officer, in addition to retaining his duties as OFAC officer. 

Jessica Perkins will become Anchorage’s enterprise risk management lead, expanding on her role overseeing third-party risk management, the bank said.