ACAMS Today spoke to Melissa Strait for International Women’s Day 2025. She is an expert in compliance in financial technology (fintech), having joined Coinbase as the chief compliance officer in February 2021. At Coinbase, she oversees the entirety of the firm’s compliance efforts, including anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, anti-bribery and corruption, trade surveillance, consumer compliance and others. Previously, Strait served as global head of Financial Crimes for Stripe Inc., overseeing all aspects of Stripe’s AML, sanctions and anti-bribery and corruption compliance programs. She also served as the chief compliance officer of Stripe Payments Company, a licensed money transmitter. Prior to joining Stripe in early 2016, she was a compliance operations manager for Square Inc. At Square, she oversaw teams in San Francisco and St. Louis who handled transaction monitoring, know your customer and enhanced due diligence reviews as well as sanctions screening. Prior to joining the fintech industry, Strait served as a director in the due diligence practice of Kroll Inc. In that capacity, she managed teams producing in-depth due diligence research reports for banking and corporate clients, focused mainly in Asia and the Americas.

ACAMS Today (AT): This year’s International Women’s Day theme, “#AccelerateAction,” encourages progress in areas that impact equality and empowerment. How does this theme reflect your personal journey in the compliance and fintech sectors?

Melissa Strait (MS): One of the things about working in technology/fintech is that it is constantly in forward motion, progressing ahead. A novel technology or a new regulatory development might require a strategy pivot you weren’t expecting. You try something and it might not work, you try again. This builds a tremendous amount of resilience, as well as a comfort level with change and risk-taking, which ends up as a force multiplier. When I think about accelerating action, I think about boundaries that need to be pushed and norms which need to be questioned. We can’t progress by accepting the way things are or waiting for someone else to act first. This is critical in the context of equality and empowerment.

AT: What actions can organizations take to accelerate the representation of women in leadership roles in fintech and compliance?

MS: It starts with building a bench of talented women in junior-level roles. This is where we’ll source the next generation of leaders. It not only includes making sure that hiring practices are broad enough to identify diverse talent, but also to ensure that people are set up for success once they join. Particularly in a world where remote work is increasingly common, it’s easy for new joiners of any gender to fall through the cracks. Thinking about how to recognize potential and take extra steps to match those high-potential team members with new opportunities is critical for accelerating representation.

AT: What strategies or initiatives have you implemented to mentor or support women aiming to advance their careers in compliance or fintech?

MS: I’ve been lucky to benefit from a great network which I’ve built and maintained over the course of my career. I’m always happy to match talented women with others in the industry, whether that’s to forward along a resume, have a career conversation, or provide an honest opinion about a role/company. By developing these connections, I can also help match roles or speaking opportunities within my network to folks who would be a good fit.

It’s a good use of time to invest in keeping in contact with women (but really anyone!) who has helped or impressed you. Even after years or even decades, those bonds can manifest themselves in new opportunities—for you or for others. I believe that people genuinely want to support each other; it sometimes just takes a little legwork to get there.

AT: Reflecting on your career, what actions or achievements are you most proud of, particularly those that align with promoting women’s empowerment and accelerating meaningful change?

MS: I took a pretty big career risk moving into fintech over a decade ago. I had a good job that I liked, a senior title and a strong trajectory. As a compliance professional, I’m not a natural risk-taker, so I’m actually pretty surprised that I leapt out of that comfort zone to take a more junior (and lower paying) role to do compliance work at a tech startup. That move ended up being pivotal to my career and also tapped into my desire to change the way that compliance is done. This field is so important, and we have a huge opportunity to modernize traditional compliance practices and use innovative technologies to accelerate the prevention and detection of financial crime.

AT: On International Women’s Day, what message or advice would you share with women aspiring to make an impact in fintech, compliance or financial crime prevention?

MS: As compliance professionals, we like to follow rules. But sometimes this can mean playing it too safe. You won’t move ahead by staying in your comfort zone or waiting for someone else to offer you an opportunity. Taking the initiative inherently involves taking a risk—whether this is changing companies or industries or putting your hand up for a promotion. And you might not be successful every time, but you won’t get anywhere without trying.

AT: Is there a nonprofit you support to benefit your community?

MS: I actually enjoy direct giving via GoFundMe, but I also like to spread the love to a number of causes which are important to me, particularly if they involve pet/cat rescue.

Interviewed by Karla Monterrosa-Yancey, CAMS, ACAMS, editor-in-chief, editor@acams.org

Benedict Bahner, CAMS, ACAMS, editor, bbahner@acams.org