/regulation & compliance

News and resources on regulation, compliance, legal and governance issues for banks and fintechs.

Storonsky goes public over frustration with FCA

Revolut boss Nikolay Storonsky has rounded on the Financial Conduct Authority for its tardiness in dishing out a UK banking licence for the firm.

  4 3 comments

Storonsky goes public over frustration with FCA

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

In an interview with City A.M., Storonsky said that progress on a banking licence application in the UK had been slow and regulators had lagged behind their international counterparts.

Revolut filed the paperwork for its UK banking licence in January last year.

“I definitely see the process is slower compared to other regulators,” he said. “I’ll give you an example - so we applied for 48 licences across the globe and we received 44, and three of the licences that we haven’t received are actually in the UK.”

Having passed muster with the Prudential Regulatory Authority, Storonsky said it may be beneficial for certain KPIs to be put in place at the FCA, as well as “stricter timelines”, more people or “more efficient people”.

It's not just the banking licence which is held up. Revolut is still awaiting approval for its crypto offering from the regulator, after being held on a temporary register alongside Copper and CEX.IO, with 35 firms already being granted full approval by the watchdog.

Sponsored New Report – The Future of AI in Financial Services 2025

Comments: (3)

A Finextra member 

Maybe the truth here is that the FCA are just a little more diligent than the others. Storonsky Is acting like a spoilt kid with a entitlement issue. Sure, isn’t it easy to say the FCA is slow, or should get “more efficient people”. Bashing regulators is rife these days. Perhaps Revolut should spend more time looking at internal processes, policies and the widely reported unease among the workforce relating to work practices. Time for Nikolay to take a look in the mirror.

A Finextra member 

Oops, straight to the back of the queue!

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

Totally agree with Storonsky that KPIs should be put in place to hold regulators more accountable. Before a regulator is allowed to introduce a new rule, it should be told to prove that the intended benefits of the previous rule were achieved.

A little hard for sinecure bureaucrats, I agree, but it's high time they were subject to conditions that corporates have always been subject to, otherwise there will be too much regulatory overreach.

[Webinar] Reaping the benefits of Hyper-Personalisation with AI and Application ModernisationFinextra Promoted[On-Demand Webinar] Reaping the benefits of Hyper-Personalisation with AI and Application Modernisation