One of the emerging fintech startups Europe is increasingly caught in the crossfire. After Revolut received unicorn status after investing $ 250 million a year ago, secured a banking license and set up his own office in Vienna, the British firm is in trouble.
About the suspicious transactions
Now CFO Peter O’Higgins, along with the two founders Vlad Yatsenko and Nikolay Storonsky, has been one of the company’s most important managers to date and resigned from the company. Revolut reportedly turned off its anti-money laundering systems between July and September 2018. The system was supposed to block suspicious transactions, but last year potentially illegal transactions by Revolut accounts were possible. According to Revolut CEO Storonsky but it should have come to no illegal transactions, so the regulator was also not informed. One would have had to improve on a new system.
The company has now given reasons for the resignation of O’Higgins to the public. They had nothing to do with the security system. “Peter has decided to step down because he believes the company will need someone with global retail banking experience as we prepare to become an approved bank in multiple countries”, said Storonsky.
Employees under high pressure
Meanwhile, the corporate culture of Revolut has also come under fire. A report by Wired shows how former employees think about the company. Thus, it is said that very strong pressure has been exerted on the employees, unattainable high goals have been set and even been demanded for unpaid work. For example, applicants were asked to bring 200 new customers in order to advance to the next round of applications. This practice should now have been turned off by the company again.
The two stories show under what enormous pressure and adverse circumstances Revolut is trying to drive his growth. The British startup holds at around 4.3 million users and does everything it can to stay ahead of its competitors N26 from Germany or Monzo and Starling from the UK.