The UK government has requested a meeting between senior ministers and Revolut’s leadership in the “next couple of weeks”, a person familiar with the matter told Sifted.
Revolut’s CEO Nik Storonsky and chairman of the board, Martin Gilbert, will most likely be the representatives from Revolut that meet with senior ministers, the person said.
The exact agenda and timing of the meeting is “TBC [to be confirmed], but will likely include the position of Revolut in regards to the government’s tech agenda,” the person said.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak’s government has been keen to position the UK as a "science and tech superpower" — or more recently the "Unicorn Kingdom" — as post-Brexit Britain looks to boost growth.
The meeting comes as Revolut awaits a decision from the UK financial regulator on its banking licence application, which it submitted two years ago. A full banking licence would allow it to offer regulator-protected deposits and lending products like mortgages — which investors say are key for the neobank to compete with incumbent rivals. Currently, Revolut is regulated as an electronic money (e-money) institution.
Doubts have been cast over the process in the last few weeks, after Revolut’s auditor BDO stated that 75% of Revolut's 2021 revenues “may be materially misstated”, and the neobank’s CFO Mikko Salovaara resigned last week.
Sifted understands that publishing a clean set of 2022 financial results could be central to Revolut’s licence approval process. The neobank’s deadline for filing these next accounts is September 2023, but Sifted understands that it could publish these a month or two early. This gives us some indication as to the timeline of a banking licence decision for the bank.
Revolut has not yet announced a replacement for Salovaara as CFO, but Sifted understands that the bank has appointed an interim CFO.
The interim CFO has been working at Revolut for “several years” and was “very close to Mikko”, the person familiar with the matter told Sifted.
