Lawrence Kentz is the chief compliance officer for First Financial Bankshares, Inc., located in Abilene, Texas. Along with the typical alphabet soup of consumer protection regulations, he is also responsible for managing a team of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) professionals, including, anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud investigators, and currency transaction reporters, Customer Identification Program/know your customer and Office of Foreign Assets Control analysts.

As a compliance professional since 1984, Kentz has worked for three of the largest U.S. banks. He entered into BSA/AML shortly after the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act and one of his first assignments—along with a team of others—was to help build the Consumer and Business Banking Customer Identification Programs for Chase Bank, N.A. Because of his added responsibility with AML, he obtained his CAMS certification in August 2006 and has continued to grow in this landscape.

While serving as the senior compliance officer at a bank located in the Rio Grande Valley, in South Texas, Kentz was exposed to the AML complexities of cross-border banking. His experiences in the Valley have helped him understand the importance of a strong BSA program. Kentz is proud to be an ACAMS member.