Bates Welcomes New Managing Director Rhonda Davis

Bates Group is proud to welcome new Managing Director Rhonda Davis and Cobia Compliance to our Compliance and AML practices. Based in Houston, Texas, Ms. Davis founded Cobia Compliance LLC in 2009 to provide regulatory and compliance consulting services to broker-dealers and investment advisers, specializing in annual Rule 206(4)-7 testing for investment advisers, FINRA 3120 testing, and AML independent testing, and she also assists clients with FINRA Membership Applications, FINRA and SEC examinations and responses, litigation support for broker-dealers and investment advisers.

Ms. Davis has spent nearly 25 years serving in both legal and compliance roles in the securities industry. She holds both the Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) as well as the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) designations and is an active member of the Houston Fraud Association.

Full Bio

Bates Compliance delivers guidance and tailored compliance consulting solutions to our broker-dealer, investment adviser and hybrid firm clients on an as-needed or ongoing basis. Our team—made up of experienced senior compliance, legal and former regulatory professionals—drafts and tests policies, procedures, and supervisory and compliance processes, recommending and implementing changes based on leading practices to enhance compliance and supervisory systems and to remediate regulatory, litigation and internal audit findings.

Bates AML and Financial Crimes helps its clients meet their AML obligations through experience, resources, and ongoing guidance. Our services are tailored to the specific needs and requirements of our clients and that regulators are seeking, including in the areas of AML tuning and optimization, implementation of new systems, trade finance, and AI-driven process automation solutions, AML and sanctions system model validations; governance and oversight processes; redesign and updates to AML policies and procedures; AML and sanctions risk and gap assessments; regulatory response support; and staffing support for AML backlogs and lookbacks.