In conversation with... Colin Whitmore

What was your journey to your role today, would you say it’s been a typical career path?

No, my journey was a tour through many different situations and organisations, across the private and public sector, including the home office, immigration, defence, insurance, computer services, ending up in the financial services and then moving into financial crime, designing and supporting the implementation of a compliance solution at a large Tier 1 UK bank, then moving working at two other Tier 1 banks. I then worked briefly in the US in related but different roles, before coming back to the UK, to pick up banking again.

If you weren’t working in credit and financial services, what would you be doing?

Well, maybe a tour guide somewhere historical in Italy, such as Rome,  Florence, or Pompeii

What is something that not many people know about you?

I have dual UK and Italian Citizenship.

What is the most significant challenge facing the credit/financial services industry today?

Criminal and state actors, use of Deepfakes and AI to breach cyber and anti-fraud and crime defences, exploiting vulnerable people.

Which session or theme at Credit Week are you most looking forward to, and why?
 

There are too many exciting topics to discuss, with an impressive speaker line up it is going to be difficult to decide which sessions to attend as I would like to go to them all!

What trend or development are you excited about in the credit / financial services sector?

How we are using AI to increase our defences against criminals, data sharing across public and private partnerships to detect and prevent financial crime.

What do you hope to take away from Credit Week 2026?

Interesting conversation and insights, connection and adding to the conversation.

What advice would you give to someone who’s starting their career in the industry?
 

Be open minded, learn as much as possible and say yes to opportunities, seek the support and advice of others who have been there before if unsure, but make your own path, if it leads to a dead end, don’t give up, try again as you never know where it will take you!

Join Colin at Credit Week 2026!