Photo of Janiell "Alexa" Gonzalez

Janiell "Alexa" Gonzalez

Janiell A. Gonzalez focuses her practice on digital payments, money service businesses, money transmitter licensing, lender licensing, escrow licensing, and providing federal and state regulatory compliance guidance to cryptocurrency businesses, digital payment companies, fintechs, consumer and commercial lending companies, and banks. Janiell’s compliance related focus includes advice on matters concerning compliance with Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML) laws and regulations, the Corporate Transparency Act and implementing regulations, and compliance with Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions programs.

She also advises clients on matters involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other federal and state regulatory authorities with oversight of consumer financial and payments products and services. Janiell has a wide-ranging background in regulated entity compliance matters having served as an in-house corporate paralegal for large corporations in the health care and aviation industries. She now leverages this experience to provide strategic, practical and actionable advice to clients.

On March 20, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published a final rule (Final Rule) extending the recordkeeping requirement for compliance with U.S. economic sanctions regulations from five to 10 years.
Continue Reading US Treasury Extends Recordkeeping Requirement for Economic Sanctions Compliance to 10 Years

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) requiring all money services businesses (MSBs) located in 30 ZIP codes across California and Texas to, among other things, report and maintain records of cash transactions exceeding $200 (up to $10,000), and to verify the identity of persons presenting such transactions
Continue Reading Effective April 14: FinCEN GTO Requires MSBs Along US Southwest Border to Report Transactions in Currency of More than $200

On Jan. 25, 2024, the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Division of Financial Institutions (DFI) and the Hawaii Technology Development Corporation (collectively, the “Agencies”) jointly issued a press

Continue Reading Hawaii’s Money Transmitters Modernization Act Will No Longer Apply to Cryptocurrency Activities

On Oct. 23, 2023, FinCEN published an NPRM that identifies international CVC mixing as “a class of transactions of primary money laundering concern,” and finds that imposing additional recordkeeping and

Continue Reading FinCEN Proposes Rule to Address Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risks Associated with CVC Mixing

On Sept. 19, 2023, the CFPB issued guidance (Guidance) concerning the legal obligations creditors must observe when employing complex algorithms, marketed as artificial intelligence (AI), and other predictive decision-making technologies

Continue Reading CFPB Issues Guidance on Credit Denials Involving Artificial Intelligence

On July 27, 2023, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued an interagency

Continue Reading Federal Banking Agencies Propose New Rules to Strengthen Capital Requirements for Large Banks