Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Timeline
Generic

Joana Mejia

Lake Havasu,AZ

Summary

Compliance professional with 20+ years of financial institution experience and 10+ years of management/leadership experience. Subject matter expert (SME) in BSA/AML/KYC/Sanctions and skilled in regulatory frameworks (USA PATRIOT Act, OFAC, FATF, FinCEN), transaction monitoring, and risk assessment. Adept at stakeholder engagement, audit response, and process transformation to enhance compliance effectiveness, and the design of enterprise-wide AML programs and training.

Overview

7
7
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Financial Crimes Control - Consumer Banking (AML)

U.S. Bank
Los Angeles, California
12.2023 - Current
  • Partner with key stakeholders to implement processes, procedures, and controls to ensure compliance with financial crimes policies, and regulatory requirements
  • Serve as a liaison between the business units and Enterprise Financial Crimes Compliance
  • Development and ongoing maintenance/monitoring of financial crimes-related procedures
  • Implementation of financial crimes related policies (BSA/AML, KYC, Sanctions)
  • Offer guidance, support, and approval on the development of remediation plans and timelines for issues identified
  • Provide direction on the business unit control environment
  • Review and approval of specific higher risk customers/products (PEP's, MRB's)

Assistant Vice President, AML Advisory

MUFG Union Bank (U.S. Bank Acquisition)
Brea, CA
07.2022 - 12.2023
  • AML Subject Matter Expert (SME) for assigned Lines of Businesses for consumer banking
  • Lead all Third Party Compliance Risk Management (TPCRM) deliverables and related responsibilities to include procedure(s) review and update
  • Partner with business units in First Line and Second Line to support timely execution of business initiatives while ensuring Financial Crimes Compliance policy requirements are met
  • Support the update and maintenance of bank policies and procedures related to Financial Crimes Compliance
  • Proactively identify and remediate AML risk and control issues through oversight of activities in assigned business units
  • Support the completion of various risk assessments
  • Support the execution of action plan items arising from Regulatory exams, and Internal Audit and Financial Crimes Compliance testing engagements relating to consumer banking to ensure management is informed

Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) Officer II

First Entertainment Credit Union
Los Angeles, CA
07.2018 - 06.2022
  • Designated Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Officer
  • Implement, maintain, and revise BSA/AML and OFAC policies and procedures
  • Assist the AML Director with regulatory requests, audits, and exams related to AML
  • Monitor and update BSA/AML, and OFAC Risk Assessments
  • Oversee due diligence on all high-risk account relationships
  • Develop, implement, and facilitate the BSA/AML and OFAC training program for all employees
  • Produce metrics and operational reports to include Key Risk Indicators, Performance Indicators, trends, and analysis of illicit or suspicious activity to Business Lines, Senior Management and the Board of Directors
  • Manage the triage process of BSA/AML alerts, cases, CTRs, and SARs
  • Triage alerts and cases and complete and submit SAR's and CTR's

Education

Associates Degree - Business Administration

California State University - Dominguez Hills
Carson, CA
06.2006

Skills

  • AML Program Management – policy development, risk assessments, governance
  • Team Leadership – supervising analysts, training, performance scaling
  • KYC/CDD/EDD Oversight – account reviews, high‑risk onboarding, beneficial ownership, PEP screening
  • Regulatory Compliance – BSA, OFAC & Sanctions Screening, FATF, 314(a)/(b)
  • Transaction Monitoring – Actimize, Verafin; alert triage, SAR/CTR filing
  • Reporting & Audit Prep – Regulatory Reporting, managing audits, examiner response, dashboards
  • Training program Development and Implementation – BSA/AML, KYC, OFAC
  • Cross-Functional Coordination – Legal, Risk, Operations, Product, Engineering

Certification

Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) - 2021

Timeline

Financial Crimes Control - Consumer Banking (AML)

U.S. Bank
12.2023 - Current

Assistant Vice President, AML Advisory

MUFG Union Bank (U.S. Bank Acquisition)
07.2022 - 12.2023

Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) Officer II

First Entertainment Credit Union
07.2018 - 06.2022

Associates Degree - Business Administration

California State University - Dominguez Hills

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