Risk Management & Compliance Speakers for Financial Services

Risk management and compliance speakers help financial services teams see how failures happen, how financial crime moves through institutions and how good judgement holds up under pressure. The speakers below include the founder of the International Compliance Association, a former European Central Bank board member, a former director of the Bank of England and the trader whose losses brought down Barings Bank.

They suit banks, insurers, asset managers and fintech firms planning a risk and compliance conference, a board away day, an anti-money laundering awareness week or a leadership session on conduct and culture. For the technical side of security, see our separate guides to cybersecurity keynote speakers and fraud and scam speakers.

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What should a risk management speaker bring to a financial services event?

A risk management speaker at a financial services event should bring first-hand experience of how risk is created, missed or controlled inside real institutions. The strongest sessions come from people who have regulated markets, investigated financial crime, sat on bank boards or lived through a failure, and who can turn that into decisions your teams face every week.

For a compliance or financial crime audience, that usually means a practitioner who can make anti-money laundering controls feel relevant to frontline staff. For a board or executive team, it means someone who can talk about governance, judgement and culture at the level where risk appetite is set. For an all-staff session, a well-told case study of what went wrong often does more than any policy refresher.

Risk management and compliance speakers for financial services

These five speakers each bring a specific angle on risk, from financial crime and regulation to governance, ethics and a rogue trader's view of weak oversight.

Stephen Platt

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A compliance keynote on how illicit money moves through the financial system, from the founder of the International Compliance Association.

Stephen Platt founded the International Compliance Association, which provides training and qualifications to compliance professionals worldwide, and is founder and CEO of the regulatory technology company KYC360. A barrister by training, he has spent decades investigating financial crime and regulatory failures and working with regulators to improve compliance processes.

He is the author of Criminal Capital, a book on how illicit funds move through the global financial system, and has served as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. His sessions focus on closing the gap between regulatory requirements and how controls work in practice, which makes him a strong fit for compliance conferences and senior risk teams.

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Ray Blake

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Making financial crime controls land with frontline staff as well as risk and compliance teams.

Ray Blake has spent more than three decades in the regulation of retail financial services, working with global banks to strengthen their defences against financial crime on both the policy and operational side. His technical knowledge covers banking regulation, anti-financial crime measures and financial derivatives.

He speaks to senior management, frontline staff and risk and compliance functions, and co-hosts The Dark Money Files podcast as writer and presenter. That range makes him a good choice for anti-money laundering training weeks where the same message needs to reach very different parts of the business.

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Nick Leeson

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A first-hand account of how weak oversight let more than $1.3 billion of losses go unseen at Barings.

Nick Leeson is the trader whose concealed losses of more than $1.3 billion brought down Barings Bank, one of Britain's oldest financial institutions. Trading on the Singapore Monetary Exchange, he hid mounting losses in a secret account while being seen as a star performer, and the collapse exposed critical flaws in risk management and regulatory oversight.

After serving four years in prison in Singapore and surviving cancer, he studied psychology and now speaks on financial risk, corporate misconduct and resilience. For a risk audience, his account shows exactly how pressure, incentives and gaps in oversight combine, which makes it one of the most memorable case studies a financial services event can book.

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Sir Andrew Likierman

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Board and leadership sessions on judgement, governance and decision-making under pressure.

Sir Andrew Likierman is Professor of Management Practice at London Business School and was its Dean from 2009 to 2017. He has been a Director of the Bank of England and a non-executive Director of Barclays Bank, served on the Cadbury Committee on corporate governance and chaired the National Audit Office.

His book Judgement at Work: Making Better Choices was published in 2025, and his six-part model helps organisations spot judgement gaps before they turn into failures. He suits board away days and executive sessions where the focus is how leaders evaluate risk and make high-stakes decisions.

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Tracey Groves

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Treating ethics, compliance and culture as levers for performance and risk resilience.

Tracey Groves was Senior Corporate Governance Partner at PwC UK and is an Independent Panel Adviser on Corporate Governance and Culture for the Financial Reporting Council. A chartered accountant with more than 30 years of experience, she now runs Intelligent Ethics and advises organisations on building integrity and governance into their operations.

She draws on board-level consulting and forensic case studies to give leaders practical frameworks for ethical decision-making. Her sessions also cover responsible AI, which makes her a strong fit for financial services firms working through conduct, culture and new technology at the same time.

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More speakers on regulation, conduct and financial crises

These speakers bring a regulator's, an industry leader's or a journalist's view of risk in financial services.

José Manuel González-Páramo

Served on the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2004 to 2012 and on the Governing Council of the Bank of Spain, then led global economics, regulation and public affairs at BBVA. He helps executives read central bank signals and anticipate regulatory change.

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Roger Steare

Advises boards on integrity and has guided Barclays and HSBC. His decision-making framework for BP after the Gulf of Mexico disaster was endorsed in a 2016 US Department of Justice agreement, and his MoralDNA research is cited by the Chartered Insurance Institute.

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Dame Inga Beale, DBE

The first female CEO of Lloyd's of London, where she led the market's digitalisation, with more than four decades in global financial services. She sits on the boards of NN Group, Willis Towers Watson and Crawford and Company, and speaks on transformation, risk and inclusive culture.

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Manuel Conthe Gutiérrez

Led Spain's securities regulator, the CNMV, from 2004 to 2007, where he developed the Conthe Code for corporate governance, and was Financial Sector Vice President at the World Bank. He covers governance, regulatory shifts and the cognitive traps behind poor financial decisions.

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Andy Verity

BBC Economics Correspondent and author of Rigged, whose reporting uncovered the Libor rate-rigging scandal. His Panorama investigations have exposed money laundering and corporate misconduct, and he explains how regulatory and central bank decisions affect business.

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Robert Peston

As BBC Business Editor he broke key stories of the global financial crisis, including Northern Rock, RBS and the rescue of HBOS. A former Financial Times banking editor, he brings the story of the 2008 crash and its lessons to large audiences.

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Dr Margaret Heffernan

Author of Willful Blindness, named by the Financial Times one of the most important business books of the decade. Her work shows how organisations overlook critical information, which makes her a strong choice for sessions on conduct risk and speaking up.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does a risk management speaker cover at a financial services event?

A risk management speaker at a financial services event covers how risk is identified, missed and controlled inside real institutions. Depending on the brief, that can mean financial crime and anti-money laundering, governance and board judgement, ethics and conduct culture, regulatory change, or a case study of a failure such as the collapse of Barings Bank.

Who are the best compliance speakers for a bank or insurer?

The best compliance speakers for a bank or insurer on PepTalk's roster include Stephen Platt, founder of the International Compliance Association, anti-financial crime specialist Ray Blake, and governance adviser Tracey Groves. For a regulator's view, José Manuel González-Páramo and Manuel Conthe Gutiérrez both held senior regulatory roles.

How much does it cost to book a risk or compliance speaker?

Booking a risk or compliance speaker through PepTalk starts at around £2,000 to £5,000 for specialists such as Ray Blake, Tracey Groves and Sir Andrew Likierman. Well-known names such as Nick Leeson sit around £6,000 to £10,000, and broadcasters such as Robert Peston from £11,000 to £25,000. Send us your date, format and audience for a quote.

Do you also have cybersecurity speakers for financial services?

Yes, PepTalk also has cybersecurity speakers for financial services, including former heads of national cyber and intelligence agencies and specialists in social engineering. See our guides to cybersecurity keynote speakers and fraud and scam speakers.

💡 Interested in booking Stephen Platt, Nick Leeson or Sir Andrew Likierman for your next risk, compliance or leadership event? Send us a message and we'll scope the right format and a quote for your audience. Remember, it's always a good time to get a PepTalk!