John
Calderon
John Calderon is the Director of AML Compliance for PLS Financial Services, one of the largest MSBs in the U.S. with over 200 locations in 12 states. John is primarily responsible for overseeing the BSA/AML/OFAC program and related functions company wide.
These functions include managing the company’s regulatory examinations, fine-tuning transaction monitoring systems, reporting financial crime trends to the Board of Directors, conducting annual risk assessments, facilitating the annual BSA/AML independent review, completing annual vendor due diligence, training and supervising compliance and operations staff, responding to law enforcement requests, and enhancing, testing, and maintaining policies, procedures, and controls.
John has over 10 years of industry experience, having served at numerous multi-national financial institutions in various leadership and consultant roles. Previously, John served as the Vice President of the Client Intelligence Unit for MUFG’s retail banking division where he led a group tasked with performing enhanced due diligence on inherently high-risk customers.
John has also led extensive remediation projects related to consent orders, subpoenas, MOUs, and other regulatory actions. The scope of his experience spans across several areas including, Transaction Monitoring, Investigations, Enhanced Due Diligence, KYC Onboarding, OFAC/Sanctions Screening, Business Intelligence, and Analytics.
John completed a B.S. in Finance and Economics from the University of Illinois Chicago and an MBA from the University of Texas Permian Basin. He is also a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, Certified Python Developer, Certified SQL Developer, and Tableau Certified Data Analyst. John is actively involved in the AML community, and frequently participates in industry webinars, information sessions, and conferences.