How much do you know about the businesses you extend credit to?
Commercial credit data can help you understand how customers pay, spot potential risks and make more informed decisions about credit limits.
In Episode 62 of Overdue Advice, host Bryn Griffiths talks with Lina Chindamo, CCP, Director of Enterprise Accounts at Creditsafe Canada, at the National Credit Conference in Jasper, Alberta.
Drawing on more than 25 years in credit risk management, Lina explains what business credit reports can reveal, including payment history, liens and judgments, and how that information supports customer onboarding and ongoing credit decisions.
Lina also discusses Creditsafe’s partnership with Equifax in Canada, access to international business credit information, and why tighter budgets can make reliable data especially valuable. She shares how her experience as a credit manager shapes her work with customers, where AI helps her team, and why relationships within the credit community remain so valuable.
For business owners and credit professionals, this conversation offers a practical look at using commercial information to understand customers and manage credit with greater confidence.
Creditsafe Canada: https://www.creditsafe.com/ca/en.html
Episode Highlights
00:15 — Meet Lina Chindamo, CCP
Her background in credit risk management and Creditsafe Canada.
01:04 — Finding a Career in Credit
How Lina entered the profession and earned her designation.
02:41 — Creditsafe and Equifax
Their Canadian partnership and access to international credit reports.
07:06 — What Credit Reports Reveal
Payment behaviour, liens, judgments and recommended credit limits.
07:43 — Understanding the Credit Manager’s Job
How Lina’s experience shapes her work with customers.
09:33 — Credit Decisions Under Economic Pressure
Why tighter budgets make reliable credit information valuable.
10:18 — Putting AI to Work
Using AI for call notes, follow-ups and greater efficiency.
12:32 — Learning From the Credit Community
The value of conferences, shared experience and lasting connections.
Episode Transcript
Bryn Griffiths: My name is Bryn Griffiths. The world of credit and credit collection is always changing, mostly because the world is always on the move too.
Lina Chindamo is the Director of Enterprise Accounts at Creditsafe Canada. She’s a certified credit professional with more than 25 years of experience in the credit risk management area, and she’s worked at places like Sony and Maple Leaf Foods. She’s also a huge part of the credit community as well, with board roles at the National Credit and Financial Executive Forum, along with the Credit Institute of Canada.
In fact, that’s where we caught up with her this past summer in Jasper, Alberta, at the National Credit Conference. Hey, Lina, welcome.
Lina Chindamo: Thank you.
Bryn Griffiths: So tell us a little bit about you first and foremost. How did you get into this business? I love finding that out because it’s amazing where people start and where they are now. But what about for you?
Lina Chindamo: Well, I’m sure you’ve heard this already from others, that we all kind of fell into this role.
Bryn Griffiths: Yeah.
Lina Chindamo: You must’ve heard that. So that’s exactly what happened. Many years ago, I was working for a small company and dealing with a lot of different suppliers of different products. I was in collections, and I posed the question to this gentleman who was working for a collection agency at that time. I said, “I’m not sure why I’m here or why this role is important, but I really like it. I’m not sure what the next steps would be.”
He quickly told me about the Credit Institute and that there was a designation program at the time. It used to be called the FCI, the Fellow Credit Institute, and now it’s the CCP. So he told me about it, and I looked into it and registered for the courses, and here I am.
Bryn Griffiths: Now, did you ever see yourself doing this? Like when you’re going through high school, everybody has these goals and these dreams and everything. What did you want to do? And then you got diverted into what’s been a great career.
Lina Chindamo: Yes, absolutely. I have my BA in economics, so I knew I wanted to go into the world of business. I just didn’t know which route I would take. To me, it was important to work for an organization where I could add value. And that’s exactly what the CCP was able to help me with, to really deliver that value in the area of accounts receivable and credit management.
Bryn Griffiths: Tell me a little bit about Creditsafe with Equifax. The two the same, or the two separate but kind of the same? How does that work?
Lina Chindamo: We are two separate legal entities, not related. We do have a partnership here in Canada.
Bryn Griffiths: Right.
Lina Chindamo: Through that partnership, we are able to offer Equifax customers an area that they currently can’t offer in the Canadian market, and that is international reports. Creditsafe is a global provider of commercial data. We have offices globally. We cover over 160 countries, so we’re able to provide commercial credit information on businesses worldwide.
That’s opened the door for existing customers of Equifax to be able to pull information in different markets.
Bryn Griffiths: There’s a synergy there, right?
Lina Chindamo: Yes, absolutely. They’re using our platform to deliver the data to their customers. It’s their data, their scores, their information, and we are able to add some additional value to that as well.
Bryn Griffiths: Is this a growing business?
Lina Chindamo: Absolutely.
Bryn Griffiths: Like big-time growth or steady growth?
Lina Chindamo: Everyone needs commercial information. Different areas of the business require it. If we’re talking about the Credit Institute and from a credit perspective, then it’s onboarding new customers. But you also have supply chain or vendor management that require that information on vendors, so a different area of the business.
And because of the commercial data, there could be sales or different strategic departments within an organization that will require certain datasets.
So I’m going to say yes, it’s growing. We can help with prospecting. We can help with compliance. The opportunities are endless.
Bryn Griffiths: I have to ask this, and it’s funny because back in 2021 when I first started doing this podcast for MetCredit, one of the things we tried to avoid was talking about the pandemic.
Lina Chindamo: Mm-hmm.
Bryn Griffiths: Because people had had enough about talking about it. However, now here we are 6 years out and I’m amazed at the durability of companies, some companies, and how much people have taken what they learned through all of that and are now applying it. Is this a company that’s been able to do the same over the last 6 years?
Lina Chindamo: Absolutely. We shifted from being in the office to working from home, which other companies have done as well. And from a sales perspective, being in a sales role, I thought it would be challenging to work with companies because that face-to-face, in-your-office interaction was sort of nonexistent.
But we quickly adapted to moving online, using Teams or other platforms to meet with customers, and it was very well received. We were still able to conduct business.
In my mind, I think we were able to conduct more business because you’ve lost the commute, right? Travel time. You don’t have to travel an hour and a half to see your customer and get back to your office and start from scratch.
Bryn Griffiths: So, how much does it change the way you work? Because if you’re used to the face-to-face stuff and person-to-person in an office, were you able to adapt to that quickly?
Lina Chindamo: It was tough at first, but I always have my camera on. I think it’s really important to make that connection. I feel like 90% of the people out there do the same. I think there’s still a few that are a little camera shy and they don’t turn their camera on. I always ask if they’re open to doing that because I want that facial connection.
Bryn Griffiths: You want to see how they’re responding.
Lina Chindamo: Yes, exactly. To see all those cues. So I think, like I said, 90% of the people will have their cameras on and it seems to work really well.
Bryn Griffiths: Let’s go down 2 roads of thought here. Let’s talk about Creditsafe and give us the overall view of the company. And then I’m kind of curious to know exactly what you do at Creditsafe. That’s always a tough one for some people. They just have a tough time explaining what they exactly do, other than the fact they just go in and do it every day.
Lina Chindamo: Oh, I can explain what I do. I didn’t catch the first question about Creditsafe.
Bryn Griffiths: Well, explain a little bit more about Creditsafe for somebody who might be tuning in for the very first time.
Lina Chindamo: I mentioned earlier that we have commercial data. So companies who are onboarding new customers are looking at information such as our credit reports that will give them a credit score and help them understand what that payment behaviour looks like.
There’s a lot of trade data within that report. It looks at suits, liens, judgments. It gives you a recommendation on a potential credit limit that you might offer them and makes you comfortable, or not, in doing business with that company.
Bryn Griffiths: Okay. And now your role in there is?
Lina Chindamo: I’m a salesperson. My role is sales, enterprise accounts. I feel like I’m more of a consultant, though, because my background really is credit risk management. That’s why I’m here. I’m not here only as a sponsor to the event, but I also hold my CCP designation.
Having been a credit manager for over 25 years, I feel that my role is more consultative. I’m able to connect with our customers in a way that most salespeople may not because they have never been in their shoes. So I understand their pain points.
I know what they’re going through. I can make some recommendations and really bridge that gap. What are your current needs and what are your issues? And here’s how we can solve them based on our products and services.
Bryn Griffiths: It’s problem solving. Do you find that fun?
Lina Chindamo: Yes.
Bryn Griffiths: And challenging, I know.
Lina Chindamo: Yes.
Bryn Griffiths: Right?
Lina Chindamo: Yep. Everyone’s different.
Bryn Griffiths: The other thing, and I’ve talked to numerous people on this podcast over the years about the fact that it’s not just trying to collect money, it’s trying to work with people.
I know that there’s some tough stories out there, but the enjoyment of trying to work it out with that particular group…
Lina Chindamo: Yes, relationships are very important. I think the most important role that you have working in this type of position is building that trust and understanding, being able to support them when they need it. And do customers get upset sometimes?
Of course they do.
So you’ve got to work through that as well. I think when you have a trusted partner and a really good relationship, you can find common ground and work through any of those issues as well.
Bryn Griffiths: A lot of talk about the economy these days and people are wondering where we’re going. Are you a little concerned about what you’re seeing out there or do you think that we’ve always been resilient? If we got through this way back then, we can get through this right now.
Lina Chindamo: Yeah, it’s definitely tough. You’re seeing a little bit of pressure around pricing, for sure. Companies trying to renegotiate because their budgets are tighter and tighter every year.
But the nice thing about our product and our solution is this is the time that they need us the most, right?
Because other companies are struggling, their customers are struggling, so they want to make sure that they’re making sound credit decisions and that they have the right tools to do that.
Bryn Griffiths: Over the last couple of years, AI is becoming quite the talked-about thing. How does AI fit in with what you do? Are you using it very much, or do you have to gauge it, moving slowly? How are you handling that?
Lina Chindamo: It was interesting at first, right? What is AI? How do we use it? Is it going to take our jobs? All those questions that are being asked out there. We use it as an organization. We have different tools on the sales side.
For example, we use Gong, which helps us with our calls.
When we are on those face-to-face calls online that we talked about earlier, it will record the call, take notes, summarize and provide you with next steps. It’s great to have because when you are engaged in a conversation, I don’t know about you, but sometimes my fingers don’t write as fast as I think.
Bryn Griffiths: Yeah, you’re right.
Lina Chindamo: So having that is helpful. And then we have other areas that are trying to create efficiencies, really.
Bryn Griffiths: Well, I don’t know if it’s the same with you, but I talk to a lot of people during the day and after a while the conversations start to blend. They start to cross over. So it’s really nice for me to be able to go to notes that are being done by AI.
Lina Chindamo: Yes.
Bryn Griffiths: And I can sit down and relax. The conversation we’re having right now, I should fill up. Are you a coffee drinker? I should have got you a coffee before we started this.
Lina Chindamo: Yeah, I am, but it’s okay.
Bryn Griffiths: I’m on my 5th already today, so I’m doing fine. But when you look ahead now at the next year or 2 at what you’re doing, where do you see the biggest challenges coming from? And that’s hard to look that far ahead, even the next 6 months.
Lina Chindamo: It really is. And we’re not referring to AI here, we’re just referring in general. I think the economy is struggling. I think companies are struggling.
There’s that pressure to reduce budgets and find efficiencies. So there’s going to be some shrinkage,
I think, in the next five to six years. Hopefully it’s stable with a little bit of growth, but I can see already that companies are tightening their belt and that there could be some shrinkage.
Bryn Griffiths: When you are here at Jasper at the National Credit Conference, how much can you learn from other people that you have a chance to talk to, or is everybody a little guarded? I’ve asked a few people that already. They say it’s really valuable for them.
Lina Chindamo: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think people are guarded. I feel like this is a great community. I’ve been involved for over 30 years. I know a lot of people in that room, and I get to see them every couple of years if they’re not from Ontario, where I’m from.
Seeing them is great, and having good conversations, listening to the speakers and the topics, and having the opportunity, like a roundtable at your own table, to review or discuss some of those topics that are presented just gives everybody an opportunity to share their experience and their thoughts on the presentation.
Bryn Griffiths: This may sound corny, but I do sense a family get-together here. Everybody knows…
Lina Chindamo: Yes.
Bryn Griffiths: And I think it’s fabulous when you get a chance to talk. Some of the things that we’ve been hearing out of this conference, is there anything that’s really stuck out for you, or do you just take as many notes as you possibly can and see, how can I implement that with what I do?
Lina Chindamo: Yes. Yesterday’s keynote was quite interesting, when you think about your personal brand and how you present yourself out there, how you see yourself and how others see you. I did take a couple of notes. I was taking pictures of the screens to take notes.
When I do go back to the office, I want to give that a little bit of thought to see if there’s any tweaking or improvements that I can make there.
Bryn Griffiths: Where are you based out of, by the way?
Lina Chindamo: Toronto.
Bryn Griffiths: Okay, so when you come out west, you’ve done it before. Is it a bit of an eye-opener? The location we’re at is Jasper, Alberta, which has gone through a really tough time over the last two years. But I’m always amazed by the spirit of people.
Lina Chindamo: Yes, it’s absolutely stunning out here. I absolutely love it. If I could live here, I would. I love the mountains. The people are very kind. Very generous. The hotel’s been great too.
Bryn Griffiths: It’s been fantastic. If you had to say one thing to the community out there, people who might be tuning in on these podcasts, what would be something you’d want to pass along? Is there anything in particular?
Lina Chindamo: Well, I know there’s a lot of new people that are here for the first time.
And there’s a lot of people that have come religiously every single conference. But to the newbies, I don’t know if that’s the right word to use, the newcomers, I know that they’re going to find a tremendous amount of value in being part of this organization. I’m confident that they’re going to take home something of value from the presentations, and the connections that they make here will last them a very long time.
Bryn Griffiths: How long are you going to keep doing this for? Do you have any idea? I’ve been thinking about it a little bit. Are you learning new stuff all the time where you go, wow, that keeps the challenge going?
Lina Chindamo: Yeah, absolutely. I love to go to the breakout sessions, and even though I’m not doing credit risk anymore, I do want to see what’s changed over the year. So I try and keep up to speed with all of that. I will continue to do this as long as I can. I’ve been coming to these conferences since the ’90s. I only missed one.
Bryn Griffiths: That’s not that long ago though, is it?
Lina Chindamo: Well, it is.
Bryn Griffiths: It is. I’m just trying to be nice.
Lina Chindamo: It is. I’ve only ever missed one, so I’ll definitely keep doing that. I did sit on the board of directors for the Credit Institute as well.
I served three terms, so six years, and that was quite fun. I ended that at the last conference, but I’m happy to always participate and help out anytime I can.
Bryn Griffiths: Well, thanks for dropping down here to my little studio. I’m fascinated by all the stories people have to tell, and I’m happy to hear yours. Thanks for coming.
Lina Chindamo: Thank you, I appreciate it.
Bryn Griffiths: Hey, that’s it for today’s episode of Overdue Advice.
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You can drop us a line at overdueadvice@metcredit.com. Overdue Advice, the podcast about cash flow strategies to grow your business. I’m Bryn Griffiths.