Alejandra “Ali” Ruiz De Somocurcio

Maria Alejandra “Ali” Ruiz De Somocurcio is a partner at the public accounting firm PAAST, P.L. Ali has over 15 years of public accounting experience with a focus on assurance services. Ali plans and directs internal audits and operational reviews of financial institutions. She also has extensive experience performing loan reviews, allowance for loan and lease losses reviews, Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering audits, as well as other compliance audits. In addition, Ali assists banks found to be in violation of statutory and regulatory requirements take corrective measures to become compliant and successfully exit the terms of Cease and Desist orders. Ali also performs external audits and provides forensic accounting services to a number of clients in a variety of industries.

Ali’s BSA/ AML experience stems from having audited several financial institutions in this particular area.  She verifies BSA departments have developed, implemented and administered all aspects of the Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Program. She also performs various quality control reviews and has audited the area of Bank Secrecy Act, USA Patriot Act, Anti-Money Laundering, OFAC and Customer Identification Program compliance using industry standards and regulatory guidance sampling methods to ensure the bank’s compliance efforts are properly maintained.   Additionally, she has performed transaction monitoring reviews to ensure that possible financial activities are not indicative of money laundering. Furthermore, she has performed reviews of the risk assessment of various banks to ensure that they have incorporated and considered all various types of products, services, customers, entities, transactions, and geographic locations in which the banks are engaged in order to comply with the Federal Financial Institution Examination Council.

Ali stays abreast of current topics relating to the regulatory environment of financial institutions by frequenting conferences and training seminars organized by the Financial Managers Society, Florida Bankers Association, Florida International Bankers Association, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the South Florida Bankers Institute. She also participates in the annual Deposit and Lending Compliance Seminar hosted by PAAST.

Prior to joining the firm, Ali was a staff accountant at a local public accounting firm and held various accounting positions in different organizations.