Laura Rau

Laura Rau is a highly versatile compliance leader who has driven transformative compliance initiatives for financial services businesses, including banks, nonbank financial institutions and payments businesses, navigating complex enforcement actions and collaborating with court-appointed monitors under DOJ and State Attorneys General orders. Ms. Rau has extensive experience engaging with federal and state regulators while also contributing to global standards.

Most recently, Ms. Rau was the Chief Compliance Officer at a large regional bank. She brings deep subject-matter expertise in regulatory compliance, including Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-money Laundering (“BSA/AML”), sanctions and counter-terrorist financing (“CFT”), consumer compliance and compliance management systems (“CMS”).

In addition to her experience in banking, Ms. Rau has significant experience with money transmitters and money services businesses (“MSBs”). She spent more than 15 years working with Western Union and MoneyGram as the Head of the Global BSA/AML Program Office, where she partnered with teams and regulators in the United States and across the globe. Ms. Rau began her career as a regulator at the Washington State Gambling Commission and as an Internal Auditor at the Federal Reserve Bank.

Relevant Experience:

• Directed the global AML compliance program function for Western Union, including leadership roles for regulatory enforcement action remediation initiatives
• Directed global AML compliance initiatives for MoneyGram International, including DOJ remediation and global policy development
• Led enterprise-wide compliance transformation programs as Chief Compliance Officer of Texas Capital Bank and Independent Financial Bank, including CMS design and development of fair lending programs
• Managed a team of 40 consultants for a major AML remediation of the U.S. branch of a foreign bank under consent order with NYDFS and the Federal Reserve Bank
• Developed and executed audit and compliance programs at USAA and the Federal Reserve Bank
• Partnered extensively with state and federal banking regulatory bodies on a variety of engagements