K2 Intelligence Expands Financial Crimes Compliance Offering in EMEA

K2 Intelligence today announced an expansion of its global Regulatory Compliance practice, continuing to broaden its financial crimes compliance and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) capabilities throughout EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). To help spearhead these efforts in the region, Piero Molinario, global financial regulation and AML expert, has joined the firm as a senior advisor.

He will work in conjunction with Darren Matthews, Executive Managing Director and Regional Head of EMEA and Tom Bock, Executive Managing Director and leader of the firm's financial crimes compliance and AML offerings.

"With recent events demonstrating vulnerabilities at some of the world's most revered institutions, the need to proactively guide compliance solutions to avoid current and future risk has never been greater.  Expanding the full offering of our financial crimes compliance and in particular AML services out of our London and Geneva offices will help to better serve the marketplace," said Jeremy Kroll, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of K2 Intelligence.

"We are pleased to welcome Piero to the team. By growing our EMEA financial crimes compliance and AML offering, we are doubling down on our global commitment to serving clients' intricate compliance needs. Piero's experience and in-depth understanding of the global landscape will allow us to better serve our client base in matters related to AML and beyond," said Darren Matthews, Executive Managing Director and Regional Head of EMEA.

K2 Intelligence's New York-based team has served for many years as advisors to and monitor of EMEA-based institutions facing regulatory issues in the U.S. The EMEA-based financial crimes compliance and AML team will work alongside these professionals to keep clients abreast of requirements across regulatory compliance environments, helping them to assess and ensure in-house practices are meeting the needs of global regulators.

Mr. Molinario most recently acted as an independent advisor to senior management at several international financial institutions in Germany, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Latvia, and Italy on matters relating to anti-financial crime, particularly AML prevention programs, investigations, and remediation with a strong focus on change management, operational efficiency, and organizational re-design. Previously, Mr. Molinario spent close to two decades working for Deloitte, most recently as Partner in New York and Milan, where he led numerous U.S. and international AML/CTF projects, multi-country U.S. sanctions investigations, and an assessment of the six main banks in Cyprus, in relation to the financial crisis bail-out for the Central Bank of Cyprus and on behalf of the European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund.

"Today, organizations of all types and sizes must be hyper-vigilant in AML compliance practices, particularly as bad actors find new ways to exploit safeguards," said Piero Molinario. "It is clear that K2 Intelligence has pioneered leadership in helping financial organizations around the globe build, maintain, and mature AML practices. I look forward to this next chapter of expansion."

"As the tides of regulatory compliance continue to shift, and technology advances at a rapid pace, it is more critical than ever for organizations to have a 360-degree, global view of their AML compliance practices. With Piero at the helm in EMEA, reinforced with the veteran team in New York, K2 Intelligence is well positioned and up-to-the task," said Tom Bock, Executive Managing Director and leader of the firm's financial crimes compliance and AML offerings.

K2 Intelligence's regulatory, compliance, and AML professionals advise commercial and retail banks, investment banks, financial services, and FinTech firms, as well as governmental and other non-financial obliged entities around the world on anti-financial crime and regulatory compliance matters. Leveraging the firm's deep investigative acumen, K2 Intelligence helps clients meet the challenge of complying with international financial crime regulations, through both proactive and reactive measures. The firm's multi-lingual, multidisciplinary professionals bring to bear experience and expertise in international standards, leading industry practices, and country specific requirements across 100 countries throughout EMEA, including those 28 following EU directives. Operating from offices in London, Geneva, Madrid, and New York, the global regulatory compliance team assists clients with matters including AML, Sanctions, and Anti-Fraud Compliance programs; Know Your Customer (KYC) Due Diligence; Monitorships and Independent Consultancies; Sanctions Screening and Compliance; Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC); Model Validation, Tuning, and Testing; Transaction Monitoring; Compliance Process Outsourcing; Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessments; and FinTech Advisory.