Today we are delighted to announce that we have appointed Jeff Horowitz as Coinbase’s Chief Compliance Officer.
Jeff joins us after spending close to 12 years at Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon Company, one of the largest providers of brokerage custody, clearing and settlement solutions in the world.
From our earliest days as a company, Coinbase committed itself to being the world’s most trusted and easiest to use cryptocurrency service. Adding Jeff to our team is one more important step along this journey. His experience, vision and judgment will be incredibly valuable as we continue to expand into new markets, and add new services such as Coinbase Custody and our recently announced acquisition of a licensed broker-dealer.
For the past three years, Jeff served as Pershing’s managing director and global head of compliance, overseeing its regulatory and compliance programs. Prior to this role, Jeff was the firm’s chief compliance officer and global head of anti-money laundering (AML) and compliance programs.
Before joining Pershing, Jeff led various compliance and AML programs at Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Salomon Brothers. He previously served as a banking regulator with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), along with twice serving as a member of FinCEN’s Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group (BSAAG). Jeff also actively helps shape regulation and industry best practices through his roles on numerous industry and regulatory committees. These include the Security Industry and Financial Markets Association’s (SIFMA) Compliance and Regulatory Policy Committee, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) Compliance and Advisory Committee. His experience managing matters related to broker-dealer regulation, asset custodianship, and AML programs makes him a uniquely qualified leader for our compliance team.
As Coinbase — along with the cryptocurrency space as a whole — grows and matures, continued regulatory compliance across all the varying jurisdictions globally will be critical. Jeff’s appointment builds on the foundation laid by our chief legal and risk officer, Mike Lempres, who will now focus his resources exclusively on leading our government relations efforts. Hiring Jeff is recognition on our part that navigating compliance complexities on a global scale requires a concerted, cross-functional effort, guided by leaders with experience that spans policy, financial services, and corporate governance.