Desai, Sonia

Sonia Desai is the BSA/AML Officer for Charles Schwab Bank based in San Francisco, CA.  She has previously lived and worked in Malaysia, Egypt, the Dominican Republic, and Australia.  She holds an MBA in international business and has had numerous years of global experience in developing Anti-money Laundering (AML), Sanctions and Anti-bribery and Corruption programs, policy and operations.

Prior to joining Charles Schwab, Ms. Desai was the Director of Operations and Sanctions Officer for the BSA/AML and Sanctions unit at Bank of the West.  Prior to that, she was an Executive Manager with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, Australia where she was the Global Deputy Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO), Sanctions Officer and Anti-Bribery and Corruption Officer.  Before moving to Australia, she worked in the Financial Investigations Unit at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco, helping build their BSA/AML and Sanctions Programs.

Sonia has also served as a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Department of State. In that role she helped shape U.S. sanctions policy and the terrorist designation programs with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and other governmental intelligence agencies.