Revolut announced on Thursday that its chief financial officer will step down, just weeks after the group sparked concerns with its portrayal of a critical audit report as a clean bill of health.
The £26bn fintech and super-app developer has also been frustrated by what it feels has been an overly long wait for its UK banking licence, for which it applied in 2021.
Mikko Salovaara, who had been in the role for two years, will be departing from his role for personal reasons, the startup said.
Salovaara had recently assured that the licence was coming "any day now".
While the financial app last year received permanent approval from the Financial Conduct Authority to run its cryptocurrency business in the UK, its banking licence has proved more elusive.
Founders Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko recently expressed frustration with the Bank of England’s regulatory arm "doing a lot to slow us down", telling the Times newspaper that the Prudential Regulatory Authority was imposing months of unexplained delays and capital requirements that are higher than those imposed on banks.
When it reported its long-delayed 2021 results earlier this year auditor BDO warned that some information “may be materially misstated” as it was unable to satisfy itself of the “completeness and occurrence” of revenues.
The fintech company sparked concern issued a public statement and hired lawyers this month to insist that BDO's opinion “confirmed that ‘the financial statements give a true and fair view” of the company’s financial position, though this omitted the following words from BDO that the accounts gave fair view “except for the possible effects of the matters described in the ‘basis for qualified opinion’ section of our report”. The story was first reported by the Financial Times.
With board and chair Martin Gilbert trying to improve Revolut’s culture and governance, there was internal frustration at this PR manoeuvre.