A row has broken out among some of the UK’s most senior officials over Revolut’s application to become a fully fledged bank, according to reports.
UK finance minister Rachel Reeves is said to have brokered a three-way meeting between Treasury officials, Bank of England (BoE) regulators and Revolut, aimed at discussing the fintech’s long-awaited final approval to operate as a bank in the UK, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
But BoE governor Andrew Bailey is said to have personally intervened to block the meeting, citing concerns over the bank’s independence from the government, the paper reports.
Revolut finally won a UK banking licence last summer, following a gruelling three-year process in which regulators pored over the company’s accounts and operations. More than a year later, the company remains in a “mobilisation” period, awaiting final sign-off.
Getting the final stamp of approval would allow Revolut to offer the kinds of services in its home market — for example loans, mortgages and other “grown-up” products — it already offers in the EU, where it has a licence.
Reeves has been on a mission to streamline corporate regulations in recent months, describing burdensome rules as “a boot on the neck of business” in a speech at Mansion House earlier this month.
She’s hoping to rejuvenate the London Stock Exchange, which has suffered from a slew of underperforming IPOs and homegrown companies opting to float abroad.
In 2021, Delivery startup Deliveroo gave the LSE one of its worst IPOs in history when its stock plunged 26% in a single day. Meanwhile British fintech giant Wise recently announced plans to move its primary listing from London to New York.
Bloomberg recently reported Revolut was unlikely to go public before 2026, but suggested the company's leadership was leaning towards a US listing.
Barney Hussey-Yeo, CEO of London-based fintech Cleo, wrote on LinkedIn that Reeves was “absolutely right” to aid Revolut’s push to become a proper bank, but warned of wider systemic issues.
“Britain creates value, then ensures we capture none of it. We’ve built an economic system optimised for mediocrity, where bureaucratic risk-aversion trumps wealth creation and our financial markets become irrelevant to our own champions,” he wrote.
