Laura Houlihan, CAMS

Ms. Laura Houlihan is a passionate AML/ATF, financial crime and regulatory compliance executive professional with over 25 years in the financial industry and over 15 years in Compliance. Laura is the Chief Compliance Officer at Cybrid, a Payment Orchestration Platform MSB. She served as Associate Director, Risk & Compliance at Protiviti where she led engagements dealing with a variety of AML/ATF and regulatory compliance projects for all types of regulated entities. Laura began her career as a teller at BMO Bank of Montreal and worked her way up throughout her nine-year tenure with exposure to in-branch, project management and compliance monitoring roles. In 2005, she found her calling when working at AGF Trust as Senior Compliance Specialist where she detected and raised red flags that led to locating a $30+ million ponzi scheme. In 2010 she became VP, Global Financial Crimes Compliance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Canada) where she supported the CAMLO. In 2014, Laura was recruited by the former CAMLO of AGF TRUST and was appointed CAMLO at an MSB where she was instrumental in developing and implementing a risk-based, OSFI and FINTRAC-compliant AML/ATF compliance program which assisted in successfully obtaining approval to continue as a Schedule 1 bank now known as Exchange Bank of Canada.  Since 2014, Laura has held key executive leadership roles in the capacity of Chief Compliance Officer, CAMLO and Consultant at Banks, MSBs and Fintechs where she acted as SME and was accountable for ensuring compliance with all regulatory requirements. Laura attained the CAMS designation in 2009 and became a Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator in 2021.

She graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts specializing in business and political science from Wilfrid Laurier University. Laura is also a member and volunteer with the Canadian MSB Association.