Revolut whistleblower had concerns over CEO conduct and compliance

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Revolut whistleblower had concerns over CEO conduct and compliance
The ex-employee told the FCA in 2016 about concerns they had over compliance and the conduct of the firm's chief executive, Nikolay Storonsky.To get more technology news in China, you can visit shine news official website.
The FCA informed the whistleblower via email that "our investigation is now coming to a close", a year later.
Revolut told the BBC this is the first it has heard of the complaint.
The financial technology company bills itself as a "digital banking alternative", although it does not have a UK banking licence.
The firm does have an e-money licence which allows it to operate.
The company provides app-based accounts to millions of customers and allows users to trade crypto-currencies and convert cash for spending overseas.
However, the company's rapid growth created tension over compliance between staff and Mr Storonsky, according to a series of former employees who have spoken to the BBC.
The BBC spoke to a whistleblower who went to the FCA in 2016 with concerns about some of the company's anti-money laundering processes.
They told the BBC that among other allegations made to the FCA, they believed money-laundering checks were not being properly applied for select customers.
The former employee said they told the FCA that they believed systems for flagging suspect payments were not good enough, and that this behaviour put strain on some of the company's banking partners and staff.
"Those systems were utterly inadequate," the whistleblower said.
Compliance conflict
The BBC spoke to a number of Revolut employees who worked at the firm before 2018.
They all corroborated the whistleblower's testimony that there was conflict over compliance issues between staff and the chief executive.
One former member of the compliance team, who asked not to be named, told the BBC that new staff believed they could improve compliance at Revolut, but many would become disillusioned once they started working at the firm.
"Candidates would come in for the head of compliance job and be told that compliance was being run by incompetent people previously, then they would get the job and realise that the problem was the leadership. They wouldn't listen," they told the BBC.
"The CEO refused to listen to the compliance team," another former employee agreed.
The BBC understands that in the past three years, Revolut has seen the departure of two chief risk officers, two money-laundering reporting officers, a chief compliance officer and a chief finance officer, among other roles.The FCA confirmed to the BBC that it required Revolut to take specific actions following the enquiries it made after obtaining information on the company.
"It is for Revolut to comment on the specifics as it is not our policy to do so," a spokesman told the BBC.
However, Revolut would not say what the FCA had asked it to do.
But, in a statement, the company said: "Any suggestion that our CEO… ignored the advice of our compliance team in 2015 or thereafter is categorically untrue.