Navigating the Regulatory Landscape within a Growing FinTech: Q&A with Chief Compliance Officer Christy Moccia

As our Chief Compliance Officer, Christy Moccia, celebrates five years at Clear Street, she reflects on her team's daily operations, growth, and the firm’s evolution. Under her leadership, the compliance team has adeptly navigated regulatory complexities and laid the groundwork for Clear Street's success in the financial services industry.

What does your day-to-day look like?

Every day is different when you are the CCO, as you triage unexpected issues or questions that arise while balancing the deadlines of your existing book of work. My days are generally filled with meetings and daily work squeezed in where possible. As my colleague Tom Popp, Director, Compliance, jokes, “We get more done between 5 pm and 9 pm than between 9 am and 5 pm.”

The compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) teams are responsible for all regulatory compliance matters at Clear Street. We work with business and control function partners to build, implement, maintain, and improve the firm’s compliance and supervisory programs.

The team provides advice, makes recommendations, answers questions, responds to regulatory requests, conducts training, and engages with our senior executive team. But the highlight of our compliance officer role involves advising our business and control function partners.

Compliance works very closely with all areas of the firm, including business partners, finance, risk, operations, marketing, engineering, security, and executive management. Our team gets to know everyone, which is one of the distinct advantages of our role at Clear Street.

How has Clear Street's compliance function evolved over the last five years?

When I joined Clear Street, I accepted the role of Chief Compliance Officer for both Clear Street LLC and Summit Securities Group. I was a sole compliance practitioner supported by one compliance officer who served in a dual compliance/finance role. We have grown to 13 members of the compliance department who support Clear Street’s clearing and custody, prime financing, and active trading tools and services services.

As we grow and expand into new markets and products, we continually assess whether we have sufficient, knowledgeable resources to support new requirements.

While we try to be a nimble and scalable team, we add resources as needed, particularly when we don’t have the expertise in-house. For example, we recently hired Toni Rossetti as the CCO of Futures and Andrew Weg as the CCO of Clear Street Derivatives. Both bring valued subject matter expertise to the team and will help move Clear Street forward.

From a compliance perspective, what is top-of-mind for you right now?

The most significant area of concern for any compliance professional is the number and complexity of all of the new and recently approved regulations. Our plates are full, assessing new requirements and working with business partners to build new processes to comply.

As a result, we strike a delicate balance between meeting current obligations, supporting Clear Street’s business expansion, and addressing new regulations.

What are you most proud of in your time at Clear Street?

I am most proud of the team I have built here at Clear Street. We have a strong team filled with incredibly dedicated compliance officers. I am in awe of how our junior staff have grown and matured in their roles, and I am grateful for the collaborative environment we have created.

At my age, constantly learning from the folks around me is exciting. Our team comes from all different backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge bases, making every day a masterclass in how to be a better CCO and leader.

What was the moment you knew you made the right decision to work here?

I knew I made the right decision when I accepted the job. I am naturally curious and enjoy learning new things. I knew this role would stretch me and force me to take on new challenges, and I have not been disappointed.

What was your best day at work?

The best day at work was when we closed on our first outside funding in May 2022. Led by Prysm Capital, the completion of our $165 million Series B round gave us the opportunity to accelerate the launch of our platform and expand capabilities to serve fintechs, professional traders, and market makers. Back then, we were small, and everyone was involved in the process. It was a monumental moment as we proved that we could raise outside capital and now had room to run. Since then, we’ve launched ALTAS (Automated Trading Locates Allocation Systems), expanded asset class capabilities to include fixed-income, began offering investment banking services, and increased our Series B funding to $685 million in December 2023 and the firm’s valuation to $2.1 billion. 

What three words would you use to describe Clear Street?

Ambitious, dynamic, and innovative.

Clear Street’s mission is ambitious. We are building a modern platform capable of supporting many types of investors and traders in multiple asset classes in major global markets. In light of shifting market conditions and evolving regulations, we must be dynamic and responsive to achieve our goal. At our core, we strive to deliver innovative solutions to our clients.

What are you excited about for the future of Clear Street?

I joined Clear Street because I believed in its mission of building a better prime broker and clearing firm. I saw the product market fit and felt the passion behind our founders. Our mission and the expansion of new product offerings, asset classes, and markets still excite me, and working alongside incredible new joiners who bring a wealth of experience and years of success to our management team is inspiring.

Interested in joining the team? Visit clearstreet.io/careers to learn more about our open positions.