Debbie Matthews

Enthusiastic, self-motivated, trustworthy and highly driven individual with nearly 30 years' experience in Financial Services. Extensive expertise in Financial Crime Screening with 16 years in the field, covering Operational roles, Team Leader, Coaching and Training roles. Strong track record in Financial Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering, and compliance. Looking to further develop financial crime knowledge and pass on knowledge to others.

Financial Crime Specialist at BNY (2023-05 – Present)

Investigation and management of complex financial crime cases

• Own investigation of complex and high-risk financial crime cases within SLA
• Act as final escalation point for operational teams
• Partner directly with MLROs to validate risk-based and legislative decisions
• Built and embedded new procedures and controls in a newly formed team
• Designed KPI reporting to give leadership visibility of performance and risk exposure
• Conduct quality reviews to improve decision consistency and reduce rework

Payments Sanctions Screening Analyst at HSBC (2022-11 – 2023-03)

Payments Sanctions screening and investigation

• Manage and investigate Level 3 sanctions alerts generated against global regulatory and private list entries within payments screening
• Perform complex investigations in line with internal and external policies
• Adhere to time scales whilst maintaining a high level of quality and output in line with daily targets
• Subject matter expert acting as a point of contact for team members
• Identify and tune payments to reduce volumes and improve customer relations

Financial Crime Quality Assurance Analyst at Barclays Bank (2019-09 – 2022-09)

Quality Assurance and error analysis in Financial Crime Screening Operations

• Created error severity matrix for various QA processes including Letter Of Credit Sanctions Screening, Sanctions Query Management, US Gaming payment screening
• Challenged processes to ensure they are still relevant
• Actively support audit reviews, providing support, training and evidence
• Ensured controls and checks are maintained and adhering to strict deadlines
• Organised and chaired conference calls with Key Stakeholders across different business areas
• Error trend calls with various global locations
• Completed daily and weekly holistic review sample checks across all business areas
• Successfully onboarded Adverse Media QA into the team

Financial Crime Training Specialist at Barclays Bank (2014-01 – 2019-09)

Training design and delivery for Financial Crime Sanctions

• Designed and structured training material ensuring it is relevant and accurate
• Delivered Sanctions training to teams in UK, India, US and Singapore
• Provided concise communications of business-critical updates to key stakeholders
• Managed and uploaded department procedures to central location
• Created, updated and challenged training team procedures and Quick Reference Guides
• Created in depth reports to key stakeholders
• Set up, manage and successfully deliver Barclays Sanctions Policy training annually to over 300 staff globally
• Ensured all new joiners completed Sanctions policy training within required time frame
• Investigated transactions to ensure compliance with Barclays Sanctions policy

Financial Quality Assurance Analyst at Barclays Bank (2010-01 – 2012-09)

Quality Assurance analysis and process improvement

• Trained individuals to perform SQM QA to ensure no single point of failure
• Created error spreadsheets to analyse error trends and ensure accurate feedback
• Trained individuals to perform various processes
• Successfully Organised and chaired conference calls with key stakeholders
• Successfully transferred Quality Assurance from an operations team to an independent team
• Error trend calls with India to ensure all parties are in agreement with current processes

Global Payments Sanctions Sanction Query Management (SQM) Specialist at Barclays Bank (2007-11 – 2010-01)

Sanctions Query Management and customer relations

• Consistently kept the customer satisfied by delivering a positive experience
• Created effective working partnerships with different departments and Business Units
• Investigated incidents and errors/losses, escalating to Management if necessary
• Dealt with complaints from relationship points through various mediums
• Raised Suspicious Activity Reports in line with policy and procedures
• Trained new team members on teams' activities
• Created a Quality Assurance process for the team
• Created QA spreadsheet for SQM for error trend analysis
• Provided extra training resulting in a reduction of errors

Various Roles at Barclays Bank (1993-08 – 2007-11)

Various roles in Financial Services

• International Cheque Operations
• Customer Service International Cheques
• Service Desk