Anchorage Digital Bank Marks Two Years of OCC Banking Charter and a New Phase

When Anchorage Digital Bank received its OCC charter in January of 2021, it was a turning point for our company and a historic moment for the entire crypto industry. From the start, we’ve set out to meet the highest regulatory requirements, and we are committed to continuing to work aggressively to do so.

We believe there is a workable, regulated path forward to ensure we best serve our clients and the crypto ecosystem at large. And we’re reinforcing our commitment to strong regulatory standards and controls today by ushering in new leadership and capabilities that advance a forward-thinking path for regulated crypto.

“Recent market events have reaffirmed what we have long believed: that security and regulation are key to increasing trust in the crypto economy. We also know that regulatory distinctions and critical bankruptcy protections vary by providers, and our mission has always been to best protect our clients. The impacts of these differences in protections, controls, and oversight impact long-term ownership, security, management, and accessibility of assets. For us, selecting a federal charter has been the cornerstone of our mission to best protect our clients, and we believe the addition of these members to our team is just the latest step in our longstanding commitment to compliant, secure-by-design digital asset banking.”

— Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage Digital Bank

Our bank management team

We are strengthening leadership within our bank management team. We welcome Mark duBose as Chief Compliance and Risk Officer for Anchorage Digital Bank pending supervisory non-objection. Mr. duBose brings both compliance, internal controls, and risk management expertise from cryptonative companies and traditional banks alike, previously serving as Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Centre and Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Risk at Circle, Chief Operational Risk Officer at Santander Bank, along with Bank of America, and several advisory firms.

Mr. duBose joins current bank leadership, including Rachel Anderika, who will assume the role of Chief Operating Officer of Anchorage Digital Bank, pending supervisory non-objection, after previously serving as Chief Risk Officer. Ms. Anderika will manage all day-to-day bank operations including new asset support, tech infrastructure, model development, and planning. Ms. Anderika brings a wealth of regulatory and risk management experience from serving nearly a decade as National Bank Examiner at the OCC and as a member of bank consulting firm, Promontory Financial Group.

We also are pleased to introduce Dustin Palmer as our Interim Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) Officer, who is focused on compliance practices and further development of our anti-money laundering (AML) controls. Mr. Palmer comes from a strong background in financial crimes compliance in traditional markets and currently also serves as the Managing Director at Berkeley Research Group’s financial institutions advisory service where he focuses on digital assets and cryptocurrencies. He has also served as Managing Director of Financial Crimes Compliance at Promontory Financial Group, as a Senior Advisor at the Department of Treasury, and as an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security.

Additionally, Frieder Weichelt will serve as Anchorage Digital Bank’s Chief Information Security Officer. Mr. Weichelt is an information security leader with unique experience in security, compliance, and risk management and previously served as Chief Risk Officer at institutional crypto platform BitGo. He also served as an advisor on privacy and information security matters at Promontory Financial Group.

Along with leadership, to best continue to scale our bank we have recently made some key hires and expanded roles within our team. We welcome Scott Schwartz, CAMS, who previously held the role of OFAC Officer will assume the role of Deputy BSA Officer and OFAC Officer. Second, Jessica Perkins, who oversees Third Party Risk Management will expand her responsibilities to serve as Enterprise Risk Management Lead.

Enhancements for forward-thinking crypto banking

In the current environment, where our entire industry experienced a “flight-to-quality”, it is more important than ever for Anchorage Digital Bank to set the highest possible standard for safe, secure, and regulated access to the digital asset ecosystem. Cryptocurrency still presents unique scaling, settlement, and security challenges, and Anchorage Digital has built secure, accessible, and auditable technology that addresses them.

Along with strengthening our team, we’ve revamped our BSA/AML and Compliance programs including policies, procedures, and processes to keep pace with the complexity of the ecosystem and our compliance requirements. We’ve also taken specific steps to enhance technology capabilities to enable monitoring transactions in a programmatic, scalable way. With our new technology platform, these hires and our continued investment in staff, we will ensure that our institutional platform continues to maintain the security-first approach that has differentiated us from the beginning.

Recap of new talent and expanded roles

1. Mark duBose, Chief Compliance and Risk Officer, Anchorage Digital Bank*
2. Rachel Anderika, Chief Operating Officer, Anchorage Digital Bank*
3. Dustin Palmer, Interim Bank Secrecy Act Officer, Anchorage Digital Bank
4. Frieder Weichelt, Chief Information Security Officer, Anchorage Digital Bank
5. Scott Schwartz, Deputy BSA Officer and OFAC Officer, Anchorage Digital Bank
6. Jessica Perkins, Enterprise Risk Management Lead, Anchorage Digital Bank

* Pending supervisory non-objection from the OCC