Our Team
MSB Compliance Inc. is blessed to have exceptional talent dedicated to helping its clients ensure effective risk mitigation.
Jay Postma, CAMS, CFCS - President
Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS)
Certified Financial Crimes Specialist (CFCS)
Mr. Postma has over 25 years experience in the Banking, Financial Services, and Software Development industries. At the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s New Orleans and Atlanta branches and later at MCI Telecommunications, Mr. Postma became known for his skill in turning around troubled operating departments, bringing these departments into compliance with regulatory requirements, improving productivity and customer service, and in controlling costs.
As a founding principal of Towne Services, publicly traded on NASDAQ prior to its acquisition, a provider of services and products that process sales and payment information and related financing transactions for small businesses and community banks in the United States, Mr. Postma served as Vice President, Operations. Mr. Postma was instrumental in developing the company’s products and pricing strategies, and in creating the product features, requirements, and processing logic.
As a founding principal of El Banco Financial Corporation and its subsidiary El Banco de Nuestra Comunidad, Mr. Postma served as Vice President and Secretary. El Banco was a financial services company focused on providing traditional and non-traditional bank and financial services to the un-served and under-served Latino immigrant market. The core of the company now operates as Ingo Money providing check verification services to banks and MSBs and is a client of MSB Compliance.
Mr. Postma later served as Vice President, Division Operations Manager, and Bank Secrecy Act Officer with Flag Bank until its acquisition by RBC Centura. In this role, Mr. Postma advised executive management and the Board of Directors of increasingly stringent BSA regulatory expectations and revised, developed and implemented formal compliance policies and procedures.
Mr. Postma has significant experience working both as an employee and as an entrepreneur with banks, financial service companies, and business customers. Mr. Postma has built and reinvented Operations and Customer Service departments and managed both growing and diminishing operating departments.
Mr. Postma holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Additionally, Mr. Postma has achieved recognition as a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) through the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS). Mr. Postma is also a member of the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS). Mr. Postma helped to organize the ACAMS Atlanta Chapter and currently serves as Co-Chair of the group.
Mr. Postma is also a founder and partner in Aceris Financial Group, providing compliance consulting services to banks.
Mr. Postma is also a founder of Digital Currency Solutions which provides ongoing review and analysis of compliance and operating risks of entities engaged in digital currency services while also performing financial reviews in accordance with traditional surety bond underwriting procedures. DCS has secured an exclusive partnership with one of the world’s largest surety carriers to provide a national surety bond solution to the digital currency market. Mr. Postma is also a lifetime member of the Bitcoin Foundation.
John Schmarkey, Jr., CAMS, CFE, BSA/AML Compliance Specialist
BSA/AML Compliance Specialist
Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)
Senior Instructor (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center)
Special Agent, U.S. Treasury, IRS Criminal Investigation (retired)
Mr. Schmarkey has over thirty years of experience in complex financial crime investigations and law enforcement instruction. He served twenty seven years as a Special Agent, for U.S. Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, retiring June 30, 2011. He subsequently served as a Senior Instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where he was responsible for teaching federal agents and state and local detectives.
Mr. Schmarkey’s area of instructional expertise is international money laundering, fraud investigations and asset forfeiture. He was the lead instructor in advanced money laundering training and served as the deputy coordinator for the Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Training Program (MLAFTP). He has taught hundreds of law enforcement students, both on campus at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and at numerous task force training locations throughout the continental U.S. and in Puerto Rico. He also developed and taught basic financial investigations for the South West Border Anti-Money Laundering Alliance. He is an occasional guest instructor for professional groups and colleges.
Mr. Schmarkey often worked cases related to financial institutions and investor fraud with his partners at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secret Service and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). These numerous white collar and organized crime cases, included large scale mortgage fraud, securities fraud, Russian organized crime bank fraud and industrial commodity schemes. He was assigned to work investor fraud cases and savings and loan crisis cases with Secret Service, where he often coordinated investigations at the request of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Mr. Schmarkey has extensive experience collaborating in international cases. He was assigned to the FBI organized crime (OC) and Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) squads. While with JTTF he was assigned via the U.S. Treasury, Terrorist Finance office and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to work in Baghdad, Iraq. He has worked closely with the major American and British intelligence agencies. He also served many years supporting state and local law enforcement at the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task force. He worked narco-terrorism matters for the U.S. Treasury “Green Quest” terrorist finance task force, collaborating with Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise service (HMCE) in the United Kingdom. He is an original member of Atlanta’s “David Wilhelm Strike Force” of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).
Mr. Schmarkey is familiar with the major federal financial industry regulators and the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. He has worked closely for many years with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). He worked closely with examiners at the Internal Revenue Service and Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). He developed a special interest in money service businesses (MSB) He started a project in Atlanta to examine the illicit use of these facilities. This expanded to liaison with the Mexican financial intelligence unit in Mexico City. Mr. Schmarkey worked cases on site in several countries in Europe, South America, Central America, and Southwest Asia. His interest in international matters began forty years ago, when he was a linguist in Europe for the U.S. Army Security Agency, which was an arm of the National Security Agency. Other, influences included public accounting internships and management experience in manufacturing, during and immediately after college. He attended the Birmingham School of Law briefly. He was a top graduate in his class at the U.S. Defense Language Institute. He has a Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He is a proud member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and professional organizations, including: ACFE, ACAMS, and ACFCS. He is honored to be a Co-Chairman of the Atlanta Chapter of ACAMS and “Board Member Emeritus” of Georgia Chapter, ACFE.
Mr. Schmarkey and associates do investigations and instruction as Forensic Partners LLC, which is a licensed private investigations and teaching team. Forensic Partners is a component of the ACERIS Financial Group LLC, serving the financial services industry.
Lisa Summerbell, CPA, CFE, BSA/AML Compliance Specialist
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)
Mrs. Summerbell has over 29 years of experience in accounting, auditing and forensics with a focus on Global Financial Crime Compliance. She worked with a variety of US and UK-based financial services companies in their efforts to assess and mitigate corruption and financial crime risk across their global footprints, and also led global fraud investigations, anti-corruption reviews and financial crime compliance engagements.
Prior to joining MSB Compliance, Mrs. Summerbell served as the Global Investigations Director for Assurant, a listed Fortune 500 company serving financial services clients and their customers, supporting nearly 300 million consumers in 21 countries. Reporting to the Chief Compliance Officer, she was responsible for investigating alleged violations of company policy, the Code of Business Ethics and other confidential and sensitive matters including fraud, corruption, bribery or other ethical misconduct. Collaborating with Legal and Compliance, she designed and implemented the ethics and compliance investigations function including investigation methodologies, protocols and reporting. She partnered with HR, Internal Audit, Legal, Compliance and specialist investigations functions to run cross-functional coordinated investigations, liaising with law enforcement where appropriate. She wrote formal reports including root cause analysis and recommended remediation. She worked with the Chief Compliance Officer to provide Senior Management and the Audit Committee with insight into risk mitigation and remediation.
Prior to returning to the United States in 2017, Mrs. Summerbell lived and worked in the United Kingdom for 14 years. While in the UK, she worked as an Auditor and Fraud Investigator at Mazars and opened her own business, 4nzic Accountancy Limited., offering fraud investigation services to international financial services companies. She also spent seven years with EY in Fraud Investigations and Dispute Services. In these capacities she offered consulting and investigation services focused on fraud, anti-bribery and corruption, anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance. Engagements included enterprise-wide risk assessments, pre-acquisition due diligence, dispute resolution and assessing the maturity of anti-bribery and corruption programs against legal and regulatory requirements and industry best practices. Clients included international financial institutions, at times assisting in their interactions with the UK financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority. Before leaving the UK to return to the US, she led an anti-bribery and corruption unit in support of a global, multi-year Skilled Persons s166 engagement on behalf of the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
Mrs. Summerbell’s early career was spent in Atlanta, Georgia, where she worked as an accountant responsible for end-to-end accounting for the southeast region of RTM, a national restaurant chain. She subsequently gained audit experience and CPA certification working for Bennett Thrasher PC, where she was the Service Line Manager for Non-traditional Engagements including internal control audit engagements for SAAS providers (SAS 70 engagements), litigation support and fraud investigations.
Mrs. Summerbell holds a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy at Arizona State University. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed in Georgia and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), both the National and GA Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and the Association of Certified Anti-money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS). She is in the process of obtaining her certification as a Certified Anti-money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).
Alix Charlier, CAMS, BSA/AML Compliance Specialist
Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS)
Mr. Charlier is an accomplished BSA/AML, OFAC and PCMLTFA compliance expert having over 25 years of practical and leadership experience working with financial institutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Europe, South and Central America. He acquired deep experience within the money transmitter and banking industry with operational and leadership roles within the Accounting, Auditing, Compliance, Strategic Planning, and Product Design and Improvement functions.
Prior to joining MSB Compliance, Mr. Charlier successfully served Unitransfer USA Inc., Unitransfer Canada Inc., and Unitransfer S.A. (Haiti) over 14 years establishing and managing the compliance function while also developing and executing strategic planning to advance organizational growth, profitability and customer service.
Mr. Charlier’s responsibilities grew from VP Compliance Officer to Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer. He was instrumental in establishing a strong culture of compliance and in building these organizations’ compliance regimes from the ground up. U.S., Canadian and Haitian regulators recognized in Mr. Charlier a leader championing compliance and effective risk mitigation. Mr. Charlier’s work experience is grounded in a deep understanding of AML/CFT and sanctions regulations, fraud prevention, and industry best practices for money transmitters. He has worked closely with and advised members of Executive Management and Boards of Directors.
Mr. Charlier developed, implemented and maintained effective risk-based AML/CFT and sanctions compliance programs within multiple financial institutions. This included construction of a robust and risk-based correspondents’ due diligence program consistent with the requirements of Section 312 of the USA Patriot Act. The policies lead to effective management of a portfolio of over 30 international money transmitter-partners outside of the U.S., Canada and Haiti. His deep experience includes coordinating and guiding the organizations successfully through more than 30 U.S. state licensing exams, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (Canadian provincial regulator) exams, and multiple exams by the IRS, FINTRAC, and Banque de la République d'Haïti (BRH).
Significant strategic planning initiatives included: 1) establishing new agent collection and settlement methods to guard against increasing threats of bank de-risking to the MSB industry generally and to Unitransfer in particular; and, 2) negotiating and implementing post sale transition of Unitransfer’s North American agent network to RIA Money Transfer.
During his tenure as Chief Executive Accounting Officer at Sogebank, Mr. Charlier reconceptualized and redesigned several accounting processes and transaction flows leading to significantly improved and accurate financial records, data and reports. That same year, KMPG, the external financial auditing firm for the bank, concluded that no adjusting entries were necessary for the issuance of the bank’s Audited Financial Statements, a first for the bank.
As the bank Internal Auditor, Mr. Charlier was respected for improved operational processes and issuing valued recommendations fostering the 3 E’s (economy, efficiency and effectiveness). In recognition of his leadership contributions, Mr. Charlier was asked to head the centralized Procedures and Methods’ Department serving the Bank and its 13 subsidiaries. Mr. Charlier also led multiple internal fraud, embezzlement and misappropriation of funds related investigations and liaised with various law enforcement agencies. Additional experience includes management in food processing plants and MIS consulting competence as a Senior Auditor for Deloitte & Touche.
Mr. Charlier earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration with a major in accounting from the “Institut National d’Administration de Gestion et des Hautes Etudes Internationales” (INAGHEI), holding affiliations with “Université du Québec à Montréal” (UQAM).
Mr. Charlier has achieved recognition as a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) through the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS). He is also a member of the ACAMS South Florida Chapter and of the Institute of International Auditors (IIA).
Fluent in English, French, Haitian Creole.
Joel Byers, BSA/AML Compliance Specialist
Mr. Joel Byers joined MSB Compliance as a BSA/AML Compliance Specialist with 30 years of state financial institution regulatory experience. His career includes audit examination of money services businesses, lenders and community banks while working within the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. Mr. Byers served as a Senior NDFI Examiner and Manager over licensing and examination functions relating to licensed MSBs and lenders.
Mr. Byers began his career with the Department in 1986 as an examiner in Georgia's Northeast District, where he examined both banks and credit unions. In 1995, he transferred to the Mortgage Division, serving as a mortgage examiner for 10 years before transitioning to the Money Service Business section in 2005. During his time in the MSB section, Joel served as a Supervisory Manager while also performing licensing, examination and industry outreach and training duties. Up until his retirement from the Department, he assisted both the Mortgage and MSB areas with licensing and examination duties.
Mr. Byers earned a BBA dual major in Accounting/Finance from the University of North Georgia. He has also been a Certified Fraud Examiner and was the first employee from the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance to obtain this designation.
Susan Nelson, BSA/AML Administrative Support
Prior to joining MSB Compliance as a BSA/AML Compliance Administrative Assistant, Susan H. Nelson retired from the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance with over twenty years of dedicated service. Ms. Nelson was responsible for all aspects of check casher licensing including the review of new applications, working with applicants to resolve issues that would prevent licensing approval and making final determination regarding licensing. Ms. Nelson was also responsible for running Georgia Criminal Investigation Center criminal background checks and credit reports on all check cashing licensing applicant requests and handled the annual check cashing licensing renewals.
Ms. Nelson frequently provided direct phone support to state check cashing licensees, prospective licensees, servicing bankers, attorneys, CPAs and the general public. Phone support was provided to help prevent or solve problems and typically included explanation and discussion of various state level and Bank Secrecy Act related regulatory requirements and expectations.
Prior to her career at the Department of Banking and Finance, Susan worked for a large Atlanta-based real estate closing firm and for a national title insurance company.
In her role at MSB Compliance, Inc., Ms. Nelson provides significant operational support to the company while also having opportunity to continue working with and assisting long term check cashing customer relationships while also helping to build and support new customer relationships.
Additional Professional Resources
In addition to its full time employees, MSB Compliance maintains strong networking relationships with multiple BSA/AML consultants having significant knowledge and stature within the industry who may be called upon from time to time to work with us in completing projects. All reports of independent review include the names and professional biographies of each employee and additional outside consultant (when applicable).