Mr. Simmons is a Review Board Member & Faculty at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, and the North & South Metro Atlanta Compliance Roundtable Founder & Chairperson at the Community Bankers Association.

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He served as Executive Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Origin Bank, and in a similar position at Hamilton State Bank. During his career he was responsible for all aspects of Regulatory Compliance, he devised comprehensive BSA/AML Programs including complex layers of investigations and an enhanced monitoring system to exceed Supervisory Expectations, and developed comprehensive risk assessments, audit schedule and compliance testing programs addressing regulatory inventory of risks.

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Mr. Simmons served the Office of the Comptroller Currency (OCC) as Compliance/ BSA Specialist Bank Examiner. During his tenure with the OCC he was the functional Examiner-in-Charge (FEIC) on complex BSA & Compliance examinations, and the Supervisory Review Examiner for BSA/AML, fair lending, and CRA examinations.

He evaluated effectiveness of AML systems (such as FCRM, Bankers Toolbox, and FIS (Prime) and formulated opinions on the use of such systems. He also worked directly with Supervisory office and legal staff regarding BSA/AML violations, MRAs, and consent order issuances, providing guidance and direction to financial institutions regarding resolution of these matters.

Mr. Simmons also served as an instructor for the OCC’s Compliance Examination School and the BSA School for Examiners.

In addition, he served as the General Audit Manager for a multi-billion dollar financial institution, and he served as a Compliance Officer for several financial institutions. 

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Publications:

Powers of Attorney (Relative – Thief – Confidant), Association of Certified Anti-Money laundering Specialists, (anticipated June 2017) – An evaluation of the use of Powers-of-Attorney in the U.S.; and the risks associated with the acceptance of a POA. 

Utilizing NAICS codes to increase the effectiveness of your BSA/AML program, ACAMS Connection (Magazine) and ACAMSToday.org, August 31, 2016 

Learning from the Mistakes of Others, Matters Requiring Attention, Association of Certified Anti-Money laundering Specialists, December 2013 – 46 page white-paper analyzing 137 financial institutions issued Supervisory criticism (matters requiring attention). Analysis considers root causes, correlation of 4-pillars, and best practices. 2013  

Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, Southern Exposure Magazine, Office of the Comptroller Currency, June 2012. 

Speaking Engagements:

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21st Annual International Anti-Money Laundering Conference, Hollywood Fl., 2017 

• Banking Money Service Businesses 

• Challenges facing Financial Institutions under $30b. 

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Community Bankers Association, Advanced BSA/AML and Compliance School, 2016 

• Increasing the effectiveness of your BSA/AML program 

Bankers Toolbox Users AML Conference, Austin Texas, 2016 

• Increasing effectiveness of AML system 

• System Rules and Alerts 

• Enhancing your most valuable asset, Human Capital

 ACAMS 2014 AML Conference, Las Vegas NV, 2014 

• Reliance on other Assurance providers an Industry Best Practice.

• Smart AML Auditing: Exploring non-traditional approaches to meet regulatory expectations 

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ACAMS 2013 AML Conference, Las Vegas NV, 2013 

• Meeting regulatory expectations to further strengthen the AML/BSA risk assessment and AML audit risk assessment practices 

• Preparing an AML audit regulators can rely on

• AML Audit Intelligence