Unity Trust Bank strengthens defences with new head of financial crime appointment
Social impact bank, Unity Trust Bank, has announced the appointment of Matt McLeod as its head of financial crime. The move reflects the bank’s continued investment in customer security.
Matt brings more than 18 years’ senior experience to the role, including over 11 years at Barclays. He was most recently head of economic crime risk management at Coventry Building Society.
At Unity, Matt will lead the fraud and scam prevention strategy to help customers feel more secure about their money. He will also focus on strengthening the bank’s ability to detect and respond to potential financial crime, such as money laundering, Counter Terrorist Financing and Tax Evasion.
A key part of Matt’s role will be ensuring banking with Unity remains both secure and user-friendly. He will work with teams across the bank to give new customers a seamless set up, while maintaining the highest security standards.
Matt will also strengthen Unity’s fraud education offering. This provides comprehensive resources to help customers identify and report potential criminal activity. His work will ensure Unity continues to be the bank of choice for values-driven organisations.
Commenting on his appointment, Matt said: “I’ve always been passionate about doing the right thing for the community, which is why Unity stood out to me.
“Unity lives and breathes its values to help create a better society. By protecting customer funds, I believe I can contribute to that mission too. I’m looking forward to being part of an organisation that makes a real difference to people’s lives.
“I’ve seen first-hand how financial crime affects businesses and individuals. My focus will be to enhance our systems so that we can spot risks earlier, prevent financial criminal activity and better support our customers. This will allow them to focus on making an impact where it is needed most.”
Laura Willis-Shaw, head of customer fulfilment at Unity Trust Bank, said: “Matt’s experience will allow us to continue providing a best-in-class service. When banking with Unity, we want our customers to feel completely confident that their money is safe and secure.
“Unity is more than just a social impact bank. We’re here to serve organisations that are making a difference in their communities. That means giving them total peace of mind about their banking security.
“By investing in financial crime protection, we can ensure that potential fraud is detected and prevented just as effectively as larger banks, while maintaining the personal level of service that we know our customers value.”
Unity was founded by the trade union movement in 1984 to serve the common good. It assesses every loan proposal against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the social benefit it will create, to ensure the funding has demonstrable impact.