In conversation with... Rachael Magowan 

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

I fell into this to be honest, I trained as a teacher and then realised that I wasn’t too fond of children. I started in operations for a large Building Society then wanted to do change and tech better, receiving it was not great and often lacked operational and customer experience thinking. Roll on 20+ years and here as Deputy CEO promoted from Chief Technology Officer.

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

Oh that’s not tough at all, I would be travelling. I would love to say I would be a travel blogger but I am useless at Social Media, so I need to find a way to finance it!

What is something that not many people know about you?

Well that’s certainly had me pondering for a while, I am learning to clay pigeon shoot – failing miserably but I love it.

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

The pace of regulatory change, it’s fantastic that we are seeing such positive change but it feels very much like waiting for a bus. You’ve waited a very very long time and then they all turn up at the same time. How we navigate and transition some long waited but customers revolutionising changes will be the key to survival of many companies and encourage new entrants too.

What trend or development are you excited about in the credit /FSsector? 

I’m super excited about the payments space, innovative new ways for payments that meet the increasing demands of customers and business. Give back control, be flexible and real time data are going to change they way we all do things.

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

It’s the first event in my diary, I love it so much I often have to delay my holiday for when it finishes. Much to the annoyance of my family, I like to cross sector collaboration and learning from our past, present and future ambitions.

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

Listen, learn as much as you can and surround yourself with good allies and mentors. Always be curious, ask why and ask it again and again and never be afraid to fail, failure is just an opportunity to learn and grow.

Join us for Credit Week 2026!