Ditto

As someone who came from a small CU in the South, unfortunately, that distinction makes a BIG difference. Like at least $10,000 a year.

And that is why I am no longer with said CU.

I appreciated the “male” designation. It does very much make a difference where a lot of us work, sadly.

If your company has different pay scales for men and women with the same experience, education...

I think this is a bigger issue than BSA

Agreed Ed.

Dave & Ken, Stress level is inversely related to the level of support "Buy-In", you get from Senior Leadership. Dave, I do believe you have given talks about this issue about Leadership. Fish on dude.

I certainly have (and continue to) talk about support, unity & buy-in. My favorite topic.

P.S. Currently not fishing, but looking for warmer days.

Hey, let's revive a 10-year-old thread, that's always fun........(Why did I do that? So future Googlers like me can find the answers without searching out multiple threads.)


What's your rough estimate of appropriate BSA Officer salary? This person
- has a small staff to manage
- reports to the Compliance Director
- has about 15 years experience

It's a financial institution operating in 4 southern states of the U.S., with about 1 billion in assets and growing. No BSA enforcement orders (so far), but the last exam hasn't ended yet so the final result is unknown.

the answers will be so varied that they will provide you almost zero benefit. you are much better going on websites that specialize in recruiting and searching there

Just ask for a raise. This is like asking what the best vehicle is for travel. There are a thousand different answers based on very specific scenarios.

Spent a couple hours doing that first - way too vague/broad of range. Also many of the sites that I thought would have it, don't even have a BSA Officer title included in their options. It's not compliance director, not junior-level, etc. I'd still be interested in numbers from readers here, even though I do agree, that won't be directly relevant. I just want to know if, like the original OP, the number in use is actually half the amount everyone here thinks it should be.

Yes, there are countless factors to be considered when assigning a dollar value to a job.

It's always tempting to look at quantifiable measures such as the number of expense dollars and employees managed by an officer. You might even throw in the annual number of CTR and SAR filings and the number of Phase II exemptions managed.

My favorite view of the worth of a position was from the perspective of a Monday morning quarterback. Assume the incumbent failed to perform the duties in the job description and then add up the potential losses, penalties, enforcement actions, and other unhappy consequences that could result. Then, determine the likelihood that any of these nightmares could actually come true. (Horror stories from regulators news releases and trade association publications are always helpful in demonstrating that bad stuff actually CAN happen.) The result of this analysis should tell you how much the shareholders should be willing to pay for an insurance policy (meaning the BSA officer) to keep these risks at an acceptably low level.

When a BSA position is being priced, the penalty risks are massive, and so it's VERY important that the incumbent is experienced and does NOT make mistakes.

Very true! So.......can anyone throw some numbers out?

I'll throw this one out: $90,000.

Too high? Too low? Just right?

You can't detach a number from the job market where the position will be located. You should try to "normalize" a salary number by equating the value the bank gets from this job (how many fans and how much stuff hitting them) with another job (elsewhere in the bank, but with comparable responsibility) and start with the salary approved for the other position.

Thank you very much, sincerely. I don't mean this next response to make the "thanks" sound insincere, but what I have received is 4 answers that say, "No, I won't answer that" - in a sense. They include very good reasons why. Some answers include awesome instructions on how to proceed in the absence of a number in mind. But, I still have 4 "no" answers and/or suggestions to not seek this info. I do not disagree with what you all have said, but...

That aside, will anyone else on here give a number as an answer? Feel free to include as many of those variables as you want- region of country, why it is higher or lower, whatever. I'm looking for numbers. To those of you considering piling on another "no," please hold off on that until the question has been answered as asked. Thank you to all of you, really!

There are any number a job posting websites out there that list salary ranges. Go to glassdoor.com and search on bank compliance officer.

$180,000.

$537,985

Robert Half has had a great reference in the past, tailored by industry and location. You may want to sign in from home and check our the opportunities.

From your description, it would be impossible to even guess. $1B and in Miami could bring you $150K, but in the middle of Mississippi, it could be 1/4th that.


https://www.roberthalf.com/salary-guide

I know that ACAMS provides an annual evaluation where they have polled many BSA Officers and they compare location, asset size, education etc.

Good Luck

i know of a $1B bank paying their compliance officer greater than $200k, i know of another $1B bank paying their compliance officer $78k...in both cases they are the chief compliance officer...both banks are in the south, both are located in capital cities in their respective states, both have similar number of branches and employees...

see what we mean when we say the disparity of response would be so varied as to provide little to no benefit?

On the contrary, Happy, I find 78k to 200k to be of benefit (if for instance, the person in question is at 70k, this would be out of that anecdotal range), ditto for the 150k in Miami down to 38k in middle of Mississippi. Norman's toss-out of 180k was funny (unless he was serious), though not as funny as the 537,985.

I did try glassdoor and similar - huge range, and not broken down into asset size or other applicable factors.

The problem I find with things like the recruiter link suggested above is that increasingly these days it seems that salary is supposed to be some sort of unknowable number. I have a friend who was told that his request to know the salary range, so early in the process (after only ONE interview - gasp - the interviewer must've been clasping her pearls), was offensive and suggested he was primarily motivated by greed rather than a desire to serve. (An absurd response on that employer's, in my book.) I miss the days of "This is available, and it pays $X up to $X depending on experience." At least then you knew what the bottom number was, and that they would try to pay you that bottom number from day one no matter what your experience was. Now instead it's "Well, how much do you WANT to make?" then "Well, we can't discuss that number until our hiring decision is made."

Thanks to all.

How much do you WANT to make?

"Thank you for asking, but I'm confident your organization will see the value I may add and come up with an agreeable figure".

$537,985

Would be low for Citi, JPM, HSBC,BOA

As others have stated pay scale varies by location, asset size, complexity of products, etc. In my area, I know some BSA Officers making $150K, plus bonus, some making around $500k all in, others above $1 million if you factor in stock options (Usually MDs/Head of Financial Crime at a larger shop).

As you an applicant you should know your approximate worth. Any job I've ever applied for I knew what was an acceptable range for compensation, depending on salary and the type of bonus.