Sarah Beth Whetzel

Sarah Beth Whetzel is a CAMS-certified consultant and founder of Palmera Banking Solutions. Most recently she directed the BSA Practice for a national compliance consulting firm. With 15 years of experience in compliance and risk management for financial institutions and technology companies, her expertise includes the management and performance of AML, BSA, and OFAC regulations in the form of AML system validations, AML remediation and BSA/AML compliance audits. Sarah Beth has broad experience working with bank technology companies as well as financial institutions of all risk profiles and sizes. Several areas of specialized expertise include banks, credit unions, trust/wealth management companies, non-bank financial service providers, bank technology providers, and insurance companies.

In both auditing and operational roles, software has been at the core of her experience. She has an in-depth working knowledge of various core banking platforms as well as many of the top AML systems. She is recognized in the consulting and auditing industries for her ability to “operationalize” the complicated BSA/AML and OFAC regulations to custom fit unique operational environments and risk profiles. Sarah Beth displays the ability to think about technology in a way that is integrated from how operations and unique business environments are impacted by compliance. She discovers and closes the often-found gaps between intention (policies/procedures) and day-to-day compliance related action.

The highlight of her banking career was when she served as Risk Manager and BSA Officer for a $5+ billion dollar, multi-state, financial institution with four wholly owned subsidiaries. During her time there, she took a failed BSA Program that was under an order and turned it around in less than 100 days, to include the creation of an enterprise-wide AML transaction monitoring system. Regulators stated that the BSA Program that she designed was the “most comprehensive” and “most efficient” of all the institutions under their purview. Prior to her banking career, she also developed a reputation for being a fraud prevention expert having managed fraud and transaction monitoring programs for one of the world’s largest transaction processors.

Sarah Beth holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business from Taylor University and a Master of Science in Forensics (M.F.S.) from Stevenson University. She has been CAMS certified for over 10 years. Sarah Beth is a highly sought after speaker with engagements in the Caribbean and in the U.S. She started Palmera Banking Solutions in 2011 after seeing a need in the marketplace for specialized and affordable BSA/AML solutions.