Dive Brief:
- Revolut appointed Victor Stinga, a long-time employee, to serve as the embattled digital bank’s interim CFO beginning in May, the company confirmed to CFO Dive in an email. His appointment as interim follows the departure of former Revolut CFO Mikko Salovaara in May this year for “personal reasons” after two years in the role, CFO Dive previously reported.
- Stinga is taking on financial leadership at Revolut as the London-based online bank struggles to move forward with its plans to obtain a U.K. banking license, with the company continuing to face challenges stemming from an audit of its 2021 annual financial results.
- The bank is also racing to meet a Dec. 31 deadline to file its 2022 annual report after receiving another three-month extension, according to the U.K. corporate registry the Companies House. As interim CFO, Stinga will bear responsibility for signing off on those statements, according to a recent report by Sifted.
Dive Insight:
Revolut’s “company and the Board are evaluating all options including running an external search, in addition to considering internal candidates,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email to CFO Dive regarding the future status of its CFO seat. Revolut declined to comment further when asked if Stinga was one of the internal candidates in consideration for the permanent role.
A company veteran, Stinga — who has held various senior roles during his five-year tenure at the fintech, including a stint as head of finance and strategy, according to his LinkedIn profile — “has led on several key projects, including our 2021 fundraising round,” the spokesperson said.
The company’s $800 million 2021 funding round, led by Japanese investment bank Softbank’s Vision Fund, vaulted Revolut’s valuation to its peak of $33 billion, but the complicated ownership structure resulting from the round represented another wrinkle in Revolut’s goal of obtaining a banking license on its home turf. In October, Revolut reached a tentative agreement with Softbank to simplify its ownership structure, Reuters reported.
While the fintech gained a banking license for the European Union via the central bank of Lithuania in 2018, it has struggled to get approval for one in its home country. The London fintech has hit a rough patch following its 2021 glory days, incurring several regulatory fines, seeing the departure of key staff among allegations of a toxic workplace culture and concerns from auditors about its reported financial statements over the past few years.
Salovaara’s departure was preceded in April by James Radford, the CEO of Revolut NewCO UK — the entity created by Revolut to host its U.K. banking license — who left his role in April, CFO Dive previously reported.
Earlier this month, Revolut appointed banking industry veteran Francesca Carlesi to step in as its U.K. CEO, according to a company press release. Carlesi previously served as the founder and CEO of U.K. digital mortgage lender Molo before joining Revolut and has also held senior roles at Deutsche Bank, Barclays and McKinsey & Co, according to the release.
Carlesi will take on leadership of Revolut’s U.K. segment as Stinga seeks to meet the Dec. 31 filing deadline for its 2022 annual report — the publishing of which will likely play a key role in Revolut’s efforts to obtain its long-sought after U.K. license. Revolut received another three-month extension on the filing of its annual 2022 report — originally due in mid-September — due to lingering effects from its 2021 statements, which were also filed after a delay of six months this March, according to a report by Reuters.
The company’s independent auditor, BDO Global, reported that it was unable to independently verify three-quarters of the €636 million in revenue reported by Revolut for the year ended Dec. 31, 2021. In the opinion section of its report on the annual statement, BDO also noted that other information as pertaining to revenue might be “materially misstated” for the same reason, it said.
