Matt Russell

Matt is a financial crime risk and compliance specialist with over two decades’ experience helping firms strengthen how they understand and manage their risks. He has led major transformation programmes and regulatory reviews across banking, payments and wealth management, always focused on making financial crime frameworks not just compliant, but genuinely effective.

Illustrative experience:

Matthew has built and led financial crime teams across both consulting and industry, combining regulatory insight with practical experience. Highlights include:

• Partner at PwC, where he acted as the FCA’s expert in its first criminal prosecution under the Money Laundering Regulations and led multiple skilled person and annual reviews for major financial institutions.

• Head of AML & Sanctions at Barclays Retail Bank, overseeing policy, monitoring, and screening operations for millions of customers during a period of significant regulatory change.

• Head of Risk Assessments at Avyse Partners, where he supports the Financial Crime practice and helps clients reimagine their business-wide risk assessments, ensuring controls are proportionate, data-driven, and aligned to the risks that matter most.

• Contributor to regulatory reform, including FCA consultations and co-author of the Cartography of Compliance study with RUSI, helping influence the industry’s understanding of effective financial crime controls.