Stepan Kovalev is a director in K2 Integrity’s Financial Crimes Risk Management practice. A regulatory compliance specialist with more than 10 years of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/anti-money laundering (AML) compliance experience, Stepan applies his understanding of Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), BSA, Know Your Customer (KYC), and USA PATRIOT Act regulations to help financial institution clients meet their transaction monitoring and KYC obligations. He works with financial institutions to investigate customer records and verify their legitimacy in accordance with internal policies and procedures as well as local and federal regulations.
Before joining K2 Integrity, Stepan was a special investigations team supervisor/AML manager at Investors Bank America/Citizens Bank, where he managed a team of special investigations analysts charged with investigating potentially suspicious activity related to money laundering, terrorist financing, or other criminal activity. He verified the quality of the case investigations and SARs and carried final authority on case and SAR determination. He also assisted in developing and implementing departmental procedures and ensured investigation processes met or exceeded industry standards.
Prior to his time at Investors Bank, Stepan served as a transaction monitoring (TM) manager and VP of compliance at Shinhan Bank America, where he completed alert/case resolution based on bank AML/BSA department policies and procedures and provided guidance and expertise on SAR/No SAR decision for cases conducted by TM team analysts. He performed the QC/approval function throughout TM and EDD teams. Stepan also led the new TM rules/scenarios implementation project. Earlier in his career, Stepan held positions of increasing responsibility in the FCC function at international financial institution HSBC.
Stepan is in the process of obtaining an M.L.S. in financial crime compliance from Drexel University. He has an M.B.A. in finance from Drexel University and a B.S. from Belarusian State University, Mink, Belarus. He is a Certified Trainer of Operational Excellence (OEE Consulting) and a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). Stepan is fluent in English and Russian.