Matt Needles is a managing director in K2 Integrity’s Financial Crimes Compliance practice. With more than 15 years of industry experience working to ensure financial institutions’ compliance with anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations, Matt helps global banks and jurisdictional authorities to understand their exposure to financial crimes compliance (FCC) risks and to develop and implement solutions customized to their risk mitigation strategies and preventive measures. He helps clients design, establish, and maintain strong and robust AML/CFT frameworks, employing advanced technologies to effectively meet regulatory obligations while also strategically controlling operational risk.
Before joining K2 Integrity, Matt was executive director, enterprise anti-money laundering, at USAA, where he drove the overhaul of USAA’s automated AML monitoring coverage assessment process, improving its ability to identify monitoring gaps. He also implemented multiple improvements in risk appetite board reporting and operational metric reporting utilized by USAA’s AML program, including building a new emerging risk identification process that was integrated within the overall monitoring function, reducing time of implementation. In addition, Matt expanded and stabilized the institution’s business intelligence analytics (BIA) function, resulting in enhanced FIU efficiencies.
Prior to his time at USAA, Matt was principal product manager in the fraud and security intelligence division at SAS Institute, which provides leading enterprise analytics software solutions for banks, financial services institutions, and government entities. He provided AML subject-matter expertise for research and development teams, translating AML program standards, requirements, and use cases into product requirements, designs, and test cases. He drove advance analytics (AI/machine learning) feature releases for automated scoring and customer segmentation, advancing customers’ automated AML program capabilities.
Earlier in his career, Matt held positions of increasing responsibility in the financial crimes compliance function at several international financial institutions—including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Wachovia, and HSBC—most recently as senior financial crimes compliance manager at Wells Fargo.
Matt received a B.S. in economics and history education from Bowling Green State University. He is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS).
