
Revolut CFO resigns following money laundering controversy - braythwayt
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/01/revolut-cfo-peter-ohiggins-resigns/
======
sschueller
How do I cancel my account? Nothing in the FAQ and support chat in the app is
trying to sell me a metal card.

EDIT: found it: [https://www.revolut.com/help/profile/i-want-to-terminate-
my-...](https://www.revolut.com/help/profile/i-want-to-terminate-my-revolut-
account)

EDIT2: What a shit show, I have been trying to delete my account for more than
30 minutes now. When you chat through the app you are first connected to a bot
which you need to tell you want to talk to a human, after waiting a while you
finally get a human which then tells you to authenticate your self by signing
into the app!? So thinking something must be borked with the app I close it
and go back in only to find out I am back at the end of the queue for support
chat which is now "experiencing high volumes"...

EDIT3: I still have an account :( the wait is 1 hour now... I can't find any
emails address to send me account termination to. WTF

EDIT4: Still trying to find where to send my termination email or GDPR
complaint (where do I find who the data protection officer is?). I Found that
the address listed on their website is not the same as the one in the UK
company registry:
[https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08804411](https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08804411)

EDIT5: Crunchbase has "support@revolut.com" listed so I will give that a try.

EDIT6: "Your message wasn't delivered to support@revolut.com because the
address couldn't be found, or is unable to receive mail." :(

~~~
baby
I highly recommend Monzo instead :) it is light years ahead of Revolut.

~~~
ucha
Revolut is the only bank I know of that does free fx conversions, it's a huge
feature and money saver for people that have bank accounts in different
countries and currencies.

~~~
jscholes
> Revolut is the only bank I know of that does free fx conversions, it's a
> huge feature and money saver for people that have bank accounts in different
> countries and currencies.

Try TransferWise borderless.

~~~
rsync
"Revolut is the only bank I know of that does free fx conversions, it's a huge
feature and money saver for people that have bank accounts in different
countries"

I am interested in what you mean by "free" \- I think you mean that they
charge no fee for the currency conversion but what about the conversion rate ?
Are you suggesting they give you the current, spot rate with no basis points
charged at all ?

~~~
ben_w
I have a Revolut account, a GBP Halifax account, and a EUR N26 account. Twice
now I have accidentally topped up my GBP Revolut from the EUR N26 account
instead of the GBP Halifax account, and both times I found that transferring
the money from the GBP Revolut account to the EUR Revolut 30 seconds later
actually made a small profit from my errors.

------
jypepin
Their "friendly" twitter account blocked me because I said their recent ads
are not original (copied Spotify).

I'm a premium/black card client, and will be removing my money right away and
closing my account. Their behavior is just so hypocrite

------
braythwayt
I’m looking forward to the coming Theranos/Frye Festival postmortem exposés.

With respect to the CFO, My uninformed guess is that he originally argued for
compliance, but was bullied into “playing along” with the growth at ALL costs
mantra.

~~~
ucha
That's not going to happen. This schadenfreude is sad and hard to understand.
You're comparing companies that were criminal enterprises that produced no
value to a real company that has millions of happy and real customers. Their
app has a 4.9 rating on the app store...

~~~
thomasjudge
This kind of exemplifies the classic startup tension between playing by the
rules and ignoring the rules for the sake of moving fast, breaking things, and
capturing market share. Paul Carr on Uber: " Laws don't exist merely to
frustrate the business ambitions of coastal hipsters: They also exist to
protect the more vulnerable members of society."
[https://pando.com/2012/10/24/travis-
shrugged/](https://pando.com/2012/10/24/travis-shrugged/)

~~~
umeshunni
Or more accurately, they exist to preserve existing monopolies that have
lobbied for regulatory barriers to market entry.

~~~
rossdavidh
Unfortunately, they exist for both reasons, one of which we want and one of
which we don't, and I have thus far not found a good way to disentangle the
two.

------
c16
I guess he wasn't hitting his KPIs or working enough weekends.

~~~
gsnedders
Or opted to hit KPIs instead of worrying about legal compliance.

~~~
SyneRyder
When I saw that tweet about the KPIs a few hours ago, my first thought was
Wells Fargo and the fraud that happened there to hit their KPIs [1]. I
genuinely hadn't expected to hear about money laundering at Revolut just a few
hours later... maybe I should have.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scan...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scandal)

------
cyberferret
Hmm... I've been #6000 or so on their waitlist for a card here in Australia
for the past 9 months. I've emailed them a couple of time but just been told
"be patient". Apparently I can skip 5000 ahead in the the line by referring a
friend to their service - however the sheer length of delay and these recent
incidents have motivated me to simply cancel my wait for their service.

Perhaps I should check the wait list count again to see if they have had a
swathe of cancellations lately? Then again, I am half convinced this is just a
made up wait counter to increase the FOMO factor.

EDIT: I am actually #9750 on the wait list, and can bump myself up 6610 places
with a referral. About the same as 9 months ago.

~~~
ValentineC
Did they make you commit anything apart from an email address for your spot in
the "waitlist"?

I'm guessing that their waitlist is nothing more than a low-effort MVP to
convince a regulatory body that the residents of a country want their service
there.

~~~
cyberferret
I believe it was just name and email to register interest. Haven't filled in
any additional application or financial details as far as I can remember (it
was so long ago now that I applied).

------
robotmay
I ditched Revolut last year and moved to Starling, pretty much entirely
because I was sick of them trying to fucking sell me stuff in a "banking app"
(they weren't a registered bank at the time, AFAIK). It became near impossible
to actually use their app due to the amount of marketing horseshit being
rammed through it, so I left, moved to Starling (which is fantastic) and I'll
never go back.

In fact Starling has been so good that I've largely left my existing bank for
them.

~~~
johnnycab
>I ditched Revolut last year and moved to Starling, pretty much entirely
because I was sick of them trying to fucking sell me stuff in a "banking app"
(they weren't a registered bank at the time, AFAIK)

It is a common mis-conception to assume Revolut and Starling are the same.
Revolut and Monzo probably have more in common i.e. they both started out
getting crowdfunded as pre-paid cards. Monzo acquired a banking licence and
migrated their customers over to their banking product. Revolut only acquired
the licence, at the end of last year [1]. It has yet to offer a _banking
product_.

Starling was built from the ground up as a challenger bank.

[1] [https://blog.revolut.com/we-got-a-banking-
licence/](https://blog.revolut.com/we-got-a-banking-licence/)

~~~
cimi_
Monzo has had a banking license from the PRA and FCA in the UK since April
2017:

[https://monzo.com/blog/2018/06/07/is-monzo-a-
bank/](https://monzo.com/blog/2018/06/07/is-monzo-a-bank/)

Revolut has been licensed in Lithuania in December 2018:

[https://blog.revolut.com/we-got-a-banking-
licence/](https://blog.revolut.com/we-got-a-banking-licence/)

Big difference :)

Disclaimer: I work for Monzo.

------
tatoalo
Revolut’s CEO response on this: [https://blog.revolut.com/let-me-sec-the-
record-straight/](https://blog.revolut.com/let-me-sec-the-record-straight/)

------
sschueller
I don't like how aggressively Revolut tries to up sell you its premium
service. Revolut's metal card seems more like a status symbol and the service
seems secondary.

Additionally they still have no accounts where I am resulting in IBAN fees.

In contrast transferwise may not support "crypto" (Revolut doesn't let you
send out or in crypto making it more or less useless) but they are not trying
to up sell you and they do have accounts in my country allowing for fast
transfers. They don't have fancy metal cards but they have been expanding
their services instead.

~~~
fyfy18
Revolut, N26 and Monzo all have premium accounts with metal cards which are
nothing than a status symbol. The banking industry has been doing this for
years though with premium credit cards, so it's nothing new.

~~~
sefrost
I don’t think it’s true that Monzo has a metal card.

~~~
UpperBodyEimi
You're correct, it does not. AFAIK Monzo does not have any paid tier accounts
either.

------
davidjgraph
Blog post just out stating that resignation not related.

[https://blog.revolut.com/let-me-sec-the-record-
straight/](https://blog.revolut.com/let-me-sec-the-record-straight/)

~~~
maybeiambatman
Top comment on that post:

"I hope your KPI isn't tied to effectively running the company because I'd say
your performance rating is "significantly below expectations" and we both know
what that means."

Oof.

------
stevesimmons
A recruiter for Revolut approached me a couple of months about a Head of
Credit Risk role... After reading about their culture, it was obvious what the
career trajectory would be:

\- three months of being pushed to lend lots, regardless of what the
nonexistent risk models say, while not being allowed to set up a Collections
team with real people

\- three months of watching helplessly as a wave of bad accounts roll through
the delinquency buckets to writeoff

\- fired

No thanks...

------
linkmotif
This is the kind of thing you institute culturally and don’t put into writing
explicitly. Weird that he did the latter. Can’t imagine doing that.

------
hardlianotion
Sounds like a bad place to work. Wired has a dark take:

[https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-
labour-...](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-
fintech-politics-storonsky)

------
DyslexicAtheist
Money laundering is totally OK as long as you do it on a large enough scale
/s:
[https://www.ft.com/content/527fe170-3b79-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca...](https://www.ft.com/content/527fe170-3b79-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca5d0)

~~~
lelima
Are you a drug Dealer dude? JK

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
I sell potatoes on an .onion site.

They are high quality potatoes.

You want some?

One for two - special price for you!

------
modernyogihippy
I desperately want a Revolut account. I've been following them for the past
year and a half and they still only support EU countries.

They keep mentioning that they will launch for citizens of non-EU countries
but I've yet to see it happen. Does anyone know more about this?

------
seibelj
Money laundering in traditional banking?!?! I thought that only happened in
cryptocurrency!

~~~
chosenbreed37
> Money laundering in traditional banking?!?! I thought that only happened in
> cryptocurrency!

From my reading there was no evidence of any money laundering having taken
place. But yes money laundering has habitually happened in the traditional
banking system. Personally I think the banks get a lot more flack than is
warranted. There have been some really obvious cases but criminals are
generally are usually one step ahead of any measures prevention measures. And
as a retail client provided I'm not losing my money I don't mind what other
clients they have on their books. If regulators do than they're free to punish
any offending banks as they see fit.

~~~
lixtra
> And as a retail client provided I'm not losing my money I don't mind what
> other clients they have on their books.

You loose time if you accidentally trip one of their anti laundering wires.
And we all know time is money.

Edit: see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19280297](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19280297)

------
tmaly
AML issues are no joke. If you look at even minor violations, the fines are
huge.

------
CedarMills
Crazy how a company can just fall apart and unravel in a week.

------
gvand
The sad thing is that the CEO is still there.

------
apercu
A company with ties to Putins oligarchy involved in money laundering? How
shocking. /s

Facts: CEO's father is a deputy director Gazprom, and one of the investors is
Yuri Milner, who the paradise papers outed for channeling Kremlin cash in to
tech co's.

------
gondo
also CEO of Revolut: "Why aren’t you working on weekends?"
[https://twitter.com/phillipcaudell/status/110108122935141580...](https://twitter.com/phillipcaudell/status/1101081229351415808)

~~~
tomp
I really don't see a problem with this. It's not the "working on weekends"
that's the issue, it's KPIs. If you promise something, deliver it. If you
don't think you can, don't promise it!

~~~
leothecool
If the CEO sets the KPI, and the KPI is not achieveable, does that mean he
should fire himself for not meeting expectations? He failed at his job, after
all.

~~~
tomp
Ideally, employees/managers would push back _when_ KPIs are set

~~~
EpicEng
How do you imagine that push back would be taken given what we know about this
company?

------
coldtea
Hope the CEO is next:
[https://twitter.com/phillipcaudell/status/110108122935141580...](https://twitter.com/phillipcaudell/status/1101081229351415808)

------
braythwayt
The article summarizes much more original research from the Telegraph:
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/02/28/revolut-
fa...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/02/28/revolut-failed-block-
suspicious-transactions/)

Alas, that is behind a paywall.

~~~
Satinel
Telegraph article

 _ONE of the UK’s most promising financial technology start-ups has been
accused of violating basic banking rules by failing to block thousands of
potentially suspicious transactions on its platform.

Documents seen by The Daily Telegraph show that for three months last year
Revolut switched off an automated system designed to stop dubious money
transfers.

As a result, thousands of illegal transactions may have passed through the
London-based start-up’s digital banking system between July and September of
2018.

Revolut launched an internal investigation in late 2018 after a whistleblower
contacted Revolut’s board about serious issues with its sanctions screening
system.

In a letter to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in September 2018,
Revolut’s head of legal Tom Hambrett wrote: “The investigation concluded that
the original decision to turn off the transaction-halting mechanism was
erroneous and implied a remediable systems and controls failing.”

Sanctions screening systems automatically check customer records against an
official list to identify highrisk transactions and those flagged as
“politically exposed persons”.

Revolut, which has grown to over 3m customers around the world since its
launch in 2015, contacted the Financial Conduct Authority in September to
inform the watchdog of a three-month “failing”, The Telegraph can reveal.

It told the FCA that it had disabled part of its sanctions screening system
after it made 8,000 “false positive” flags, incorrectly identifying legitimate
transactions as being suspicious and blocking transfers. The company then
moved to a compliance system that flagged transactions but did not
automatically disable them, Revolut said.

The problems at Revolut follow a string of regulatory issues at other so-
called “challenger banks”. Metro Bank was forced to announced plans to raise
£350m from investors this week after revealing that it had underestimated the
risk level of some of its commercial loans. Metro Bank’s shares fell a further
27pc yesterday after tumbling 16pc on Tuesday as the extent of its issues
became clear.

The FCA was only informed of the problems at Revolut after an employee
complained to the board about the switch and the fact it did not automatically
block suspicious transactions.

The company reactivated its sanctions screening system on Sept 16, Revolut
told the FCA.

Revolut told the watchdog it did not believe that it had broken the law during
its switch to a different compliance system. “To the best of Revolut’s
knowledge there has been no breach of law with respect to sanctions
requirements,” the company wrote.

The digital bank has since introduced a new system following the incident last
year, it said in the letter.

However, the incident raises questions over Revolut’s ability to stop
individuals and companies who are hit by international sanctions from using
its app. It follows a report by the bank to the FCA and National Crime Agency
last year in which it warned both organisations of suspected money laundering
through its app.

The digital bank has suffered a number of departures from its compliance team
in the past two years, including two chief risk officers, the chief compliance
officer, and two money laundering reporting officers.

A spokesman for the FCA declined to comment. A Revolut spokesman said:
“Revolut does not comment on its engagement with its regulators.”_

~~~
elliekelly
> The FCA was only informed of the problems at Revolut after an employee
> complained to the board about the switch and the fact it did not
> automatically block suspicious transactions.

Yikes. This makes me think management was being less than truthful with the
board. Thats a recipe for a disaster.

------
appsonify
Revolut has offices in these locations as well:

Kraków, PL 1 Stanisława Klimeckiego

Moskva, RU Nizhniy Susalnyy pereulok

How likely are these locations likely to cooperate to say a DOJ investigation?
Especially the one in Moscow out of all places....

~~~
adambyrtek
I'm not sure where you are from, but it sounds really ignorant to put two
completely different countries in the same bag. I don't even know why DOJ
would need to be involved, but if that ever happens Poland is likely to comply
as a member of NATO with vested interest in maintaining a good relationship
with the US [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland%E2%80%93United_States_r...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland%E2%80%93United_States_relations)

~~~
appsonify
Not sure where you got the idea that I confused Poland with Russia. I just
copy pasted from their website LMAO

------
entity345
Anti-money laundering regulations are completely crazy these days.

I recently opened a child bank account (in the UK) and the application form
had one page for parents and child's details then 5 pages related to money
laundering...

Edit: here we are... Send in the immature downvotes.

~~~
dazc
I kinda agree but money laundering is a big problem too.

~~~
saagarjha
Somewhat off topic, but I’ve always thought of money laundering as kind of a
“lame” crime: it’s what the government charges you with when you seem
suspicious but it can’t figure out what you did.

~~~
auntienomen
Uhh no, the US money laundering statute requires a) that the money involved be
the proceeds of specific criminal activities, and b) that the financial
transactions be _knowingly_ used to disguise the origins and ownership of
money.

It's used to punish people who are working to disguise serious crimes,
principally the mob.

~~~
jstanley
In the UK, which is where Revolut is, in order to be convicted of money
laundering you merely need to be charged with money laundering, and then fail
to convince a court that you are innocent of money laundering. It's one of the
few crimes where you're guilty until proven innocent.

------
random_kris
check out wirex. it is bank / crypto application

------
brunosan
If you are looking for an alternative, I'd recommend checking out Eversend.
(Disclosure, my GF is a co-founder). Much smaller company, but trying to grow
it right (malmo FastTrack, Berlin tech starts, ...

------
jacknews
"It follows a report by the bank to the FCA and National Crime Agency last
year in which it warned both organisations of suspected money laundering
through its app.

The digital bank has suffered a number of departures from its compliance team
in the past two years, including two chief risk officers, the chief compliance
officer, and two money laundering reporting officers."

I don't believe the Russian CEO could be involved in, complicit in, or just
turning a blind eye to, laundering, in any way whatsoever, so clearly this was
just a stupid decision entirely on the part of the CFO to turn off the
monitors due to their excessive chatter.

~~~
apercu
"I don't believe the Russian CEO could be involved in, complicit in, or just
turning a blind eye to, laundering, in any way whatsoever, so clearly this was
just a stupid decision entirely on the part of the CFO to turn off the
monitors due to their excessive chatter."

Oh, why couldn't you possibly believe this?

~~~
detaro
If I had to guess, parent is sarcastic.

~~~
jacknews
He is the son of a senior Gazprom figure. Just saying.

~~~
stareatgoats
Satire is a difficult thing, both on the internet and off. But especially on
:-D . Still, I'm sure many people noted the irony in your original comment,
and _still_ didn't like it. Being Russian shouldn't really qualify for
suspicion, on it's own.

~~~
jacknews
Indeed, I should have said "CEO who has connections to the Russian oligarchy".
I have nothing against Russians as such.

