Jesus M. Garcia, CAMS, began working in the banking industry in June 1987. Garcia started to work in compliance for a domestic bank in 1991 when customer transaction reports and suspicious activity reports (SARs) were done manually. Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) was a part-time element of his job at that time since there were no major BSA issues leading to investigations, convictions, etc. There were three or four SARs filed a year, mostly for cash structuring. The other half of the day, he worked with the bank’s audit department. However, after September 11, 2001, everything changed, BSA became known worldwide and all banks, domestic and international, began laying the path for what BSA is today.

In 2000–2001, Garcia became a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and obtained other certifications. He commenced working for Ocean Bank, a domestic bank with a strong international customer base. As of today, Garcia is involved in the BSA sector―both domestically and internationally―performing quality control to approve/disapprove, escalating and submitting investigations alerts that his bank generates from its BSA risk monitoring system. He also provides training to other BSA personnel.