Anthony Guliford

"For me, banking is a great career because I get the opportunity to help out people. Compliance gives me the opportunity to monitor transactions to help make sure that people who bank with us aren't being taken advantage of by those who want to do so."

Compliance Specialist
WCB, Blair

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In your own words, describe your role at the bank:
As a Compliance Specialist, I have many roles in this position. I monitor Large Cash Receipts for both Washington County Bank and Houghton State Bank which is cash transactions that $1,500 or more made at the banks on a daily basis. I check for Structuring and to see if any Currency Transaction Receipts need to be filed for transactions totaling more than $10,000 in a day. Once a week, I send Beneficial Owner updates to banks that we monitor from a report we received from FNBO to let them know about documentation that is missing and needs to be sent in to remove the alerted account from the report. Once every few weeks, I go to the Bank Secrecy Act website to download a list of people/entities that they have found activity on then I look through our system to make sure none of the people/entities match anyone that we have in our systems. Once a month, I create a report for banks that we monitor for International Wires that were sent out of the country to foreign countries to make there is nothing suspicious about the transactions going out. Once a month, I also monitor the Customer Information Program for people/entities who open a new account with the bank. Per the Patriot Act, any person who opens up a new account with a bank/financial institution must provide them with a valid government issued photo ID, a valid proof of address and their name is entered into the OFAC watchlist to make sure they're not on the list. For Business Entities, they must provide the necessary documentation for their business in order to be allowed to open a bank account. Any CTRs that were filed by the bank are sent to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and once they are acknowledged, I add those documents to our records.

How did you get into banking?
I got a position with FNBO back in 2016 in Flood Compliance. After a few years of doing that, I got a promotion as a Business Associate I at FNBO headquarters. I wanted to get back into Compliance as it where I was able to accomplish the most in my professional career so when an opportunity as a Compliance Specialist came up with WCB I applied for it and got the position. I have been in this position with WCB for almost 4 years now.

Why is banking a great career?
For me, banking is a great career because I get the opportunity to help out people. Compliance gives me the opportunity to monitor transactions to help make sure that people who bank with us aren't being taken advantage of by those who want to do so.

Share your favorite book, podcast or quote. Why is it your favorite?
"Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time." - Barack Obama

I've been in Compliance for the better part of 13 years total. Compliance is very important for any financial institution as it is a means of regulating and monitoring day to day banking.