Revolut seeks help applying for UK banking licence & loses four more execs
Revolut is on the lookout for a new chairperson to lead its UK board who can “help [it] obtain a banking licence”.
The UK challenger bank published the job listing on its career page, first spotted by AltFi. The job advert further supports reports by The Sunday Times last month that the fintech is gearing up to apply for a UK banking licence before the year is out.
The fintech already has a Lithuanian banking licence which it obtained in December 2018, but has been operating in the UK the past five years without a UK licence.
Nikolay Storonsky, founder and CEO of Revolut
Responsibilities of the role would include overseeing the fintech’s prudential position, monitoring operation risk and keeping tabs on its internal auditing. The successful candidate will already have established relationships with senior regulators.
The chairperson position advertised is not to be confused with that of Sir Martin Gilbert, who joined as Revolut’s chair on a group level at the beginning of this year.
As the fintech seeks to hire new executives to fuel its aggressive growth, Revolut has also lost eight executives since March when the coronavirus began, as reported by Financial News.
According to their LinkedIn profiles, North America general manager Dan Westgarth and lead data scientist Abhi Thanendran have both left the firm, having joined it in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Read more: Revolut loses two more financial execs a month after losing CFO
“Their goals are the same, despite a much more difficult environment,” a source told FN
Global head of employer branding Anca Pintilie and regulatory reporting manager Alexander Gratz have also left the firm in recent weeks according to FN sources. Pintilie leaves just eight months after she joined, prior to spending nearly five years at Oracle.
These departures come days after it emerged Revolut had lost its deputy chief financial officer Stefan Wille, and its interim head of finance Anne Borzenko.
Earlier this month it also emerged that the head of wealth and trading André Mohamed had left, and in March the fintech’s just seven-month strong chief financial officer David MacLean announced his departure due to “personal reason”.
The high staff turnover is, according to FN sources, a result of increasing pressure to meet targets in a bid to become profitable before year end despite the ongoing economic crisis.
“Their goals are the same, despite a much more difficult environment, so obviously the pressure being felt is higher,” one source said.
Another source said the fintech was undergoing a “massive churn” at the minute, and that staff cannot afford to make mistakes.
The fintech needs to cut 30% of its expenditure on salaries to meet its goals, according to FN. Revolut says the high staff turnover is natural for a company of its size and growth rate. The fintech is still yet to lay off or furlough any staff.
