The act of reporting the suspected criminal activity to the National Crime Agency and the Financial Conduct Authority underlines the significance of the potential wrongdoing that Revolut found, the online publication continues. It also highlights how seriously the company takes its legal obligations.
However, Nikolay Storonsky, co-founder and chief executive of Revolut, declined to comment on the suspected money laundering issue. He defended the company’s compliance systems and pointed out that it had recently been re-authorised under the EU’s PSD2 and passed an FCA review of its anti-money laundering controls.
The Financial Times has spoken to several current and former Revolut employees and critics about the company’s efforts to stay on top of its commitments to fight against financial crime. Some of the interviewees said that Revolut’s rapid growth and use of automated compliance checks could leave it vulnerable to abuse by financial criminals.
Overall, the incident could be seized on by Revolut’s critics to ask whether it can maintain strong enough defences against financial crime while pursuing its super-charged growth strategy. It is advertising for its third compliance head in the past year, is one of FT conclusions.
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