Financial app Revolut is set to publish a set of long-delayed results which it hopes will pave the way for it to be finally granted a banking licence –almost 300 days after it claimed approval was ‘imminent’.
Following a year of turmoil, it is expected to file accounts for 2022 tomorrow after requesting that the deadline be pushed back from the end of September.
It is the second year in a row Revolut has failed to publish its annual results on time.
And the company, led by founder Nik Storonsky, will be hoping the figures will be well received as it desperately tries to secure a UK banking licence.
Bosses claimed in March that it was due ‘any day now’ – but 296 days later the bank is still waiting.
Results: Revolut, led by founder Nik Storonsky (pictured), will be hoping the figures will be well received as it desperately tries to secure a UK banking licence
Revolut applied for a licence from the Bank of England in 2021, which would allow it to expand its services in Britain into taking deposits, making loans and offering credit cards.
It was thought the process would take about two years. But nearly three years on, it is still wading through demands from the central bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority.
Things may finally be looking up, however. According to Bloomberg, Revolut is on course to rake in £1.5billion this year as it adds as many as 300,000 customers per week. It now has nearly 40m customers around the world.
That would be a major boost for Storonsky and Revolut chairman Martin Gilbert, the City grandee who set up asset manager Aberdeen, after a torrid year.
When its long-delayed accounts for 2021 were published in March, they attracted intense scrutiny after auditor BDO revealed it was not able to independently verify three-quarters of its £636million revenue, saying that some information may be ‘materially mis-stated’.
Revolut’s then-chief financial officer Mikko Salovaara insisted the banking licence would be granted imminently, possibly within days.
But he quit in May for ‘personal reasons’.
It followed a setback in April when asset manager Schroders valued Revolut at £14billion, a far cry from the £27billion price tag it claimed in 2021.
The delays to the licence application sparked an outburst from Storonsky, who branded Britain an undesirable place to do business – comments dismissed by City analysts as a ‘tantrum’ and ‘sour grapes’.
Revolut declined to comment yesterday.