Hello there! My name is
I’m a freelance Financial Data Specialist focused on helping banks, insurers, and investment firms turn data into decisions by delivering expert Data Analytics, Financial Modelling, Business Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions.
Hello! I'm Chris Sweeney, a UK-based Financial Data
Specialist with 20 years of experience supporting global banks, investment firms
and insurance companies with £100m+ transformation programmes and mission-critical projects.
Starting my career as an accountant in finance and investments, I transitioned into freelance consultancy
in 2007. Since then, I’ve helped multiple organizations harness the power of technology, data, and reporting to turn raw data into actionable insights
Clients usually bring me in when they need someone who speaks both finance and tech - someone who understands financial terminology yet can also build the systems, data models, financial models and dashboards to support strategic decisions.
I love solving complex problems and thrive on projects where I can combine my finance background with my passion for coding and analytics.
Ultimately, I’m here to transform your data into
valuable, actionable insights - helping you and your finance teams make smarter decisions by turning data into clarity, and clarity into action.
I regularly work with a range of tools and platforms across financial modelling, data engineering, analytics, and development:
Azure · Synapse · Databricks · SQL Server
Python · C# · VBA · JavaScript · ASP.NET · PHP · React JS
VSCode · PyCharm · Anaconda · ML Studio
Excel · PowerBI · DAX · PowerQuery
Over the past 20 years, I’ve led data, analytics, and modelling initiatives across major financial institutions and transformation programmes. Highlights include:
| Barclays | Data & Reporting Lead on a £200m global restructure programme. |
| Co-Op Insurance | Finance & Data Lead on a £100m transformation programme. |
| AXA | Data Analytics & Modelling Lead for a new Investment Platform launch. |
| L&G | Data & Financial Modelling Lead for a pensions investment programme. |
| Lloyds | Data Architect & Modeller for Liquidity Regulatory reporting. |
| Co-Op Bank | Lead Developer for Bank of England regulatory automation. |
| Barclays | Lead Developer for a £1bn financial modelling solution |
| AXA | Lead Analyst on a Pensions Predictive Modelling project. |
| Barclays | BI Architect for a global reporting suite. |
| Ernst & Young | BI Architect on a banking transformation programme. |
| Barclays | Solution Architect for Technology Risk & BI strategy. |
| Barclays | Data & Modelling Lead for “The War Room” strategic response team. |
| Ten Times Ten | Consultant for financial data project delivery. |
Over 15 years’ experience supporting £100m+ Banking, Investment, and Insurance programmes with data strategy, delivery, and stakeholder alignment.
Designing scalable, secure, and efficient data platforms for storage, integration, and analysis across complex financial ecosystems.
Full design and delivery of reporting solutions using Power BI and SSRS—empowering leaders with clear, actionable dashboards.
20 years experience of developing robust financial models for scenario planning, regulatory reporting, investment evaluation, and forecasting.
Streamlining financial workflows with advanced Excel VBA solutions tailored for finance teams and operational processes.
End-to-end design and build of SQL Server and Microsoft data warehouse solutions—optimised for performance and scale.
Development of C#, PHP, ASP.NET and JavaScript database-driven web applications to meet specific finance and data needs.
Designing and coding robust solutions using Python, JavaScript, PHP, Haskell, React JS, and SQL for financial services.
Designing systems for collecting, transforming, and storing data at scale—supporting real-time and batch analytics use cases.
20 years’ experience analysing high-volume, high-complexity data to deliver intelligible insights that support smart decision-making.
Building ML solutions in Python to solve complex financial challenges, from predictive modelling to anomaly detection and optimisation.
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Replace a manually intensive financial forecasting process with a fully automated, scalable solution. |
| Solution: | Designed and developed a web-based application to allow finance users to input projection data via secure forms. Automated the capture of supplementary data from live databases and the enterprise data warehouse. All inputs were stored in a central SQL Server database, and automation scripts were developed to update master forecasting templates—eliminating manual intervention. |
| Technologies: | C#, ASP.NET, JavaScript, SQL Server, SSIS, Excel VBA, SAP |
| Impact: | Reduced forecasting time from days to hours, improved data accuracy, and enabled version control and auditability. |
| Industry: | Investments / Pensions |
| Objective: | Streamline and automate the generation of pension projection forecasts for an investment team. |
| Solution: | Developed a fully automated system to replace manual pension forecasting processes. Built a centralised SQL Server database and automated data ingestion from multiple source systems using SSIS and Python. Designed a new Excel-based financial model with embedded forecasting logic, and automated the generation of export files for seamless integration into the finance system. |
| Technologies: | Python, C#, SQL Server, SSIS, Excel VBA, SAP |
| Impact: | Greatly reduced manual effort, improved data reliability, and enabled faster production of pension forecast reports. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Centralise and improve visibility of project change control processes across global teams. |
| Solution: | Designed and developed a secure web application to capture project change control data centrally in a new Azure SQL database. This enabled real-time visibility of global programme changes and dependencies. Developed a suite of Power BI dashboards tailored for project managers and executives, providing dynamic reporting, trend analysis, and oversight across programmes. |
| Technologies: | C#, ASP.NET, JavaScript, Azure SQL, Excel, Power BI, Azure |
| Impact: | Standardised global change management, eliminated fragmented data capture, and empowered leadership with real-time insights. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Replace manual resource planning processes with a streamlined, centralised system and real-time reporting. |
| Solution: | Developed a web-based application to standardise the capture of resource planning data via structured forms, backed by a new SQL Server database. Automated legacy import/export processes using ETL scripts built in SSIS. Replaced manual Excel-based reporting with a dynamic Power BI dashboard suite, enabling leadership to analyse resource allocation and forecasting in real time. |
| Technologies: | C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server, SSIS, Excel VBA, Power BI |
| Impact: | Reduced manual workload, increased data accuracy, and provided real-time resource visibility across programmes. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Centralise and automate the management and reporting of technology risk across the organisation. |
| Solution: | Architected a centralised risk management solution for a global bank, including a purpose-built SQL Server database to consolidate risk data. Automated daily data ingestion from multiple sources using SSIS. Developed a web application for risk managers to input and update risk items in real time. Delivered a suite of SSRS dashboards tailored for managers and senior executives, providing clear visibility of risk posture and trends. |
| Technologies: | C#, ASP.NET, JavaScript, SQL Server, SSIS, SSRS |
| Impact: | Established a single source of truth for technology risk, improved regulatory reporting, and enhanced risk oversight at all management levels. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Streamline and standardise weekly reporting across 50+ mission-critical programmes. |
| Solution: | Designed and implemented an end-to-end reporting solution to automate the generation of weekly programme updates. Developed SQL scripts to extract, transform, and load data from multiple systems. Built a robust Power BI data model using Power Query and DAX, and delivered a suite of interactive dashboards tailored for project managers and senior executives. |
| Technologies: | Power BI, SQL, Excel, Power Query, DAX |
| Impact: | Replaced time-consuming manual processes, reduced reporting errors, and enabled real-time visibility across high-priority programmes. |
| Industry: | Insurance |
| Objective: | Enable the actuarial team to efficiently model and generate premium illustrations using real-time financial data. |
| Solution: | Developed a data-driven solution for an actuarial team to model insurance premiums based on live financial inputs. Automated data extraction from source systems using SQL scripts, outputting to CSV. Used Python with the Pandas library to process, model, and generate premium illustrations. Integrated Excel/VBA elements where needed to align with existing workflows. |
| Technologies: | Python, Pandas, SQL, Excel, VBA |
| Impact: | Streamlined the premium modelling process, reduced manual intervention, and increased speed and accuracy of premium generation. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Automate the production of regulatory returns required by the Bank of England. |
| Solution: | Led the end-to-end development of an automated reporting system for a UK bank’s regulatory submissions. Conducted in-depth business analysis to interpret complex regulatory requirements and ensure complete compliance. Built SQL scripts to extract and calculate the required figures, integrated Excel VBA for validation and formatting, and output final reports in XBRL format. |
| Technologies: | SQL, Excel, VBA, XBRL |
| Impact: | Fully automated the production of regulatory returns, significantly reducing manual effort, ensuring compliance, and increasing reporting accuracy. |
| Industry: | Insurance |
| Objective: | Develop a comprehensive financial model to support the business case for a transformation programme. |
| Solution: | Created a 5-year financial forecasting model for a UK insurance company, projecting the P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cashflow for the transformed business. This involved extracting data from multiple source systems and developing a flexible, scenario-based model to generate various financial forecasts. Built the solution using SQL for data extraction, Excel for modelling, and VBA for automation and dynamic scenario generation. |
| Technologies: | SQL, Excel, VBA |
| Impact: | Delivered a robust financial model that supported strategic business decisions, allowed for scenario analysis, and helped secure the business case for transformation. |
| Industry: | Investments |
| Objective: | Build a solution to enable performance comparison and analysis of global investment funds. |
| Solution: | Designed and developed a web-based application to allow users to compare and analyse the performance of global investment funds. The solution involved extracting and importing both internal and external data into a new relational database. The application provided a flexible user interface for fund selection and analytics, allowing users to apply multiple criteria for fund comparison and performance analysis. |
| Technologies: | C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server, JavaScript |
| Impact: | Enabled investment analysts to perform comprehensive fund performance analysis quickly, improving decision-making and strategic fund management. |
| Industry: | Investments/Pensions |
| Objective: | Develop a solution for generating pension performance projections. |
| Solution: | Designed and implemented a financial modelling solution to generate pension illustrations for a global investment company. This involved extracting and transforming high-volume data, applying complex actuarial calculations, and performing in-depth analytics across multiple parameters to generate accurate pension performance projections. Integrated the solution with XML for data exchange and reporting. |
| Technologies: | SQL, Python, XML |
| Impact: | Enabled the actuarial team to automate pension performance projections, increasing the accuracy and efficiency of pension modelling and enhancing decision-making. |
| Industry: | Investments |
| Objective: | Build a solution to manage resource allocation and project costings. |
| Solution: | Designed and developed a web application to help a global investment company manage resources across multiple projects. The solution replaced manual work previously done with Excel spreadsheets, enabling the allocation of resources to projects and the accurate tracking of resource time. This allowed for precise costings and improved financial oversight across the company's project portfolio. |
| Technologies: | C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server, JavaScript |
| Impact: | Replaced manual spreadsheet-based processes with an automated web application, improving resource allocation efficiency and enhancing project cost accuracy. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Design a solution to manage headcount resource changes and assess budget impact at a departmental level. |
| Solution: | Developed a web application as part of a global restructure programme for a major bank. The application enabled the finance and HR teams to manage headcount changes and assess the impact of these changes on departmental budgets. The solution facilitated real-time data updates and budget recalculations, providing accurate financial insights to support the restructuring process. |
| Technologies: | C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server, JavaScript |
| Impact: | Streamlined resource planning and budget impact assessments, improving decision-making during the global restructure programme and ensuring alignment with financial goals. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Design a solution to automate financial forecasting processes. |
| Solution: | Developed a comprehensive solution to enable a global bank's finance teams to create accurate forecasts. The solution involved creating a new database and ETL jobs to capture necessary data for building forecasting assumptions. I designed and implemented web forms that allowed finance teams to input and store forecast data in the new database. Finally, I integrated the solution with the finance system, enabling seamless import of forecast data. |
| Technologies: | C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server, JavaScript, SAP |
| Impact: | Automated the financial forecasting process, improving data accuracy and enabling real-time insights for the bank’s finance teams. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Design a database-driven financial model for building cost projections exceeding £1bn. |
| Solution: | Developed a complex, database-driven financial model for a global bank, enabling the creation of cost projections in excess of a billion pounds. The model integrated both financial and non-financial data from multiple sources to build accurate assumptions. The solution also allowed the application of various scenarios and parameter values to generate multiple forecast scenarios, providing flexibility in financial planning. |
| Technologies: | Excel VBA, SQL Server, SAP |
| Impact: | Enabled the bank to project costs at scale with a high level of accuracy, supporting strategic financial planning for large-scale initiatives. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Automate the management of monthly costs of £100m for a global bank. |
| Solution: | Developed an application to automate the management of monthly costs for a global bank’s finance team, handling costs of over £100m. The solution replaced a time-consuming manual data-cleansing process, followed by additional manual calculations. By automating these tasks, my solution significantly reduced processing time, ensuring accurate and efficient calculation of the required values. The final output was a fully calculated file, ready for import into the finance system. |
| Technologies: | Excel VBA, SQL, SAP |
| Impact: | Automated the entire cost management process, drastically reducing manual workload, improving data accuracy, and ensuring timely cost reporting. |
| Industry: | Banking |
| Objective: | Create a 3-way financial model for a UK building society to project 5-year financials. |
| Solution: | Developed a 3-way financial model for a UK building society with assets of approximately £180m. The model covered the Profit & Loss (P&L), Balance Sheet, and Cashflow Statement, enabling the creation of 5-year financial projections. The build involved modeling various products, including savings accounts, mortgages, and loans, and included complex derivative calculations. The model allowed for detailed scenario analysis and forecasting of key financial metrics. |
| Technologies: | Excel VBA, SQL |
| Impact: | Enabled the building society to generate accurate financial projections, providing valuable insights for long-term strategic planning and risk management. |
If you've got a tricky data challenge (or even just a feeling that things could be working better), I’m always happy to have an informal, jargon-free chat about how I can help you get your data working harder for you.