Bridge achieves industry-leading compliance rigor and speed and pioneers the industry’s first SAR filing system for cards
Bridge is setting industry standards for AML compliance. Learn how Bridge built an audit-grade AML program that leads to faster, more accurate SAR filings.
A mission to protect the global financial system
Bridge is a payments platform that makes it easier for companies to move, store, accept, and issue stablecoins. Recently acquired by Stripe, Bridge aims to expand financial access by facilitating faster, more accessible payments across borders.
Compliance is central to making this vision a reality. Leading this effort is Lee Bagan, Bridge’s Director of Financial Crime and former US Army Special Forces Officer (commonly known as a Green Beret). During an overseas mission in 2017, Lee’s Special Forces unit intercepted encrypted emails involving Bitcoin — an early sign of how digital assets were being exploited by adversaries. That discovery led to joint work with the FBI on counterterrorist financing, and later to his appointment as the Special Operations Director of the US Treasury.
Lee’s experiences have deeply shaped his view of compliance as far more than a regulatory requirement. At Bridge, that commitment to security drives the FinCrime program, earning the trust of regulators, banking partners, and law enforcement alike. As he explains:
“There’s a saying in Special Forces: Getting the small things right earns big trust. That principle guides us at Bridge. Every detail of compliance is treated as mission-critical, because trust with regulators, banks, and customers depends on the details.”
Problem: Traditional SAR investigations are fragmented, slow, and prone to error
For many financial platforms, compliance requires investigating suspicious activity and filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). Many of them rely on slow, manual workflows to manage this process. Typically, data is buried across siloed systems, which requires investigators to search for information, manage complex permissions, and coordinate escalations across teams. Only after this time-consuming work can the SAR drafting process even begin.
The result is inefficiency, burnout, and risk. “Traditionally, investigating and filing SARs can take days of effort,” Lee explains. “It requires painstaking organization to get right. If you get it wrong, you risk losing credibility and trust with regulators, government officials, law enforcement, business partners, and even customers.”
Bridge was also the first company to partner with Persona on SAR filing — meaning Lee played a central role in shaping Persona’s SAR system itself. “Building a SAR filing system from the ground up requires a tremendous amount of compliance rigor to get it right,” he adds.
“Filing SARs is one of the most compliance-intensive processes in financial services, and it’s often treated as an afterthought,” Lee continues. “In my experience, that’s a mistake, because SARs are the direct interface between a financial services business and the governments that regulate them.”
For Bridge, the challenge was clear: Build a faster, more accurate, and more secure SAR filing system while maintaining the highest bar for compliance.
Whether dealing with laws, regulations, or internal policies, our system needed to adjust without slowing operations. Persona’s ability to be configured to Bridge’s requirements helped streamline investigative workflows.
Solution: Faster, more accurate, and more secure AML investigations with Persona
To uphold its high compliance standards, Bridge turned to Persona. Though Bridge considered other vendors, Persona was able to meet the company’s needs for efficiency, customization, and security.
To build Bridge’s SAR filing portal, Lee collaborated directly with Persona’s engineering team to ensure it met the highest regulatory standards from day one. Early positive feedback from regulators and law enforcement confirmed the approach was working.
Next, Bridge wanted to launch a good-funds card — a stablecoin-backed, debit-like product. With no compliant SAR filing system available for card programs, Persona built one from the ground up with Lee’s leadership and direction. Today, it remains the industry’s only solution that offers:
A unified platform. Persona consolidates KYC/KYB, transaction monitoring, device/IP/PII, and risk signals onto one platform for Bridge’s investigators.
Orchestrated workflows. As they investigate and escalate cases, Bridge’s team is confident they’re following protocol and meeting SLAs.
FinCEN integration. The final review and filing can take as little as one minute with pre-filled SAR fields and one-click submission.
Audit-grade records. Persona provides immutable audit trails and versioning across alerts, reviews, and filings. Customized, granular permissions and controls are in place to ensure information is only accessible to the right people at the right time.
Real-time fraud detection. Entity clustering and behavioral monitoring surface patterns early to reduce response times.
Lee notes that adaptability was key. “Whether dealing with laws, regulations, or internal policies, our system needed to adjust without slowing operations,” says Lee. “Persona’s ability to be configured to Bridge’s requirements helped streamline investigative workflows.”
As for the SAR filing itself, the process is now more automated: Persona’s FinCEN integration pre-fills SAR fields, turning an arduous process into a one-click filing. Every alert, review, and SAR is archived in Persona’s platform with audit trails and role-based access controls.
“As regulations evolve, Bridge can demonstrate that filings have remained consistent with compliance requirements, backed by a full audit trail using Persona,” says Lee.
Bridge’s compliance processes are now significantly faster thanks to the automated aspects of Persona’s platform.
Results: Much faster SAR filing, higher confidence with banks and regulators, and improved efficiency
Today, millions of individuals and thousands of businesses rely on Bridge to move and safeguard their money — a responsibility the company takes seriously. Using Persona, Bridge’s investigations have played an outsized role in identifying and disrupting illicit activity.
“Bridge’s compliance processes are now significantly faster thanks to the automated aspects of Persona’s platform,” says Lee. What could have been a bottleneck full of manual processes has instead become a source of efficiency:
Accurate, secure SAR filings. Bridge’s investigators are confident in every SAR they file and assured that filings are consistent with regulatory requirements.
Aligned with industry-leading practices. Persona’s detection and response capabilities have contributed to stronger outcomes in fraud and AML case handling.
Efficiency gains. What once took hours (if not days) now takes minutes, giving analysts more time to investigate higher-risk cases and write high-quality SAR narratives.
Confidence with stakeholders. Bridge has strengthened credibility with banks, regulators, governments, business partners, and customers alike.
With Persona, Bridge has brought together tools and data across onboarding and ongoing monitoring. Bridge’s fraud and AML compliance teams now work from the same platform; as a result, they are better equipped to manage the risks associated with financial crimes.
Lee emphasizes that his focus is on ensuring investigators spend time where it matters most — on higher-risk cases — rather than on tasks that can be automated. Persona’s efficiency gains have helped reduce manual workload and stave off burnout.
The credibility that Bridge has earned is a reflection of both Persona’s configurability and Bridge’s commitment to security. “We don’t view compliance as box-checking,” Lee emphasizes. “The true credit goes to the remarkable team Bridge surrounded me with. I’m incredibly proud of how hard we worked to ensure we got compliance right — holding ourselves to the highest standard every step of the way.”
As Bridge continues to expand globally and align with evolving standards, it remains committed to building trust with partners, regulators, and customers — and to proving that financial technology can be both innovative and uncompromising in its integrity. For Lee, fighting financial crime is not just compliance, it is service: Protecting citizens and ensuring that the financial system itself cannot be bent to the will of those who would exploit it.
About Lee Bagan
Hired as Director of Global Intelligence, Lee Bagan joined Bridge at the company’s early stages, when Bridge’s entire team numbered only about 20 and payment flow was minimal. Lee was entrusted with building Bridge’s financial crime program and co-leading its compliance program. Drawing on his background as a U.S. Army Special Forces Officer and later as the U.S. Treasury’s first Special Operations Director, Lee established the foundation for one of the most robust programs for compliance and financial crime prevention in the stablecoin industry and across the broader digital asset, banking, fintech, and payments landscape.
Unlike most compliance leaders, Lee’s entry point into the field was unconventional, forged through frontline experience in Special Forces and later carried into financial intelligence. During an overseas mission in 2017, Lee’s Special Forces unit intercepted encrypted emails involving Bitcoin. That discovery led to joint work with the FBI on counterterrorist financing, and later to his appointment at Treasury. As part of the military track preparing him for that role, U.S. Special Operations Command sent Lee to Stanford while still on active duty to pursue a law degree specializing in international criminality and a Ph.D. focused on criminality in the digital asset sector. Lee’s experiences have deeply shaped his view of compliance: Financial crime is not just about money — it’s about national security.
