Revolut founder Nikolai Storonsky compared the business environment in the UK to the ease of doing business in the US. Credit: REUTERS/Pilar Olivares
The founder of Europe's most valuable fintech company has criticized Britain's «extreme bureaucracy» as he launches an attack on high taxes and bureaucracy in the UK.
Nikolai Storonsky, CEO of London-based Revolut , accused regulators of slowing down the application for a banking license, and said he would never choose the UK as a place to list the company.
Mr Storonsky said: «It's hard to do business in the UK: the exchange is much less liquid, so I just don't see the point.»
«The UK has higher taxes and an extremely bureaucratic regulator
< p>He added that he would like to keep Revolut privately owned, but said he would prefer Nasdaq in the US over London if it went public.
This comes after the head of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) warned that the UK was being held back by the anti-wage campaign after a number of companies snubbed the UK market in favor of the US.
Julia Hoggett, chief executive of the LSE , on Wednesday urged British investors to change their minds about high wages and warned of a discrepancy with the US, where executives are usually paid more.
Revolut is valued at $33bn (£26bn). ) in 2021 after funding from global technology investors SoftBank and Tiger Global.
This makes it the most valuable fintech company in Europe after the fall of Klarna and Checkout.com, which delivered higher valuations.
Mr Storonsky said Britain was «totally opposite» to the favorable environment in the US and criticized the regulator for delaying the issuance of a banking license to the company.
“American tech champions are so backed by the government: all the lobbyists, politicians, governors, they always promote business, business, business, and in the UK, it’s completely the opposite,” Sideways told The Times at the Web Summit conference in Rio. .
«We're facing a slowdown. You never know what's going to happen here.»
He said Revolut's two-year attempt to obtain a banking license was «a long and tedious process.»
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«You wait for emails or letters for months. This is not the kind of business environment you can operate in in today's world,» he said.
The Prudential Regulation Authority, which issues banking licenses, no comments.
On Tuesday, the Financial Conduct Authority announced proposals to revise the city's listing regime and bring its rules more in line with US ones, just weeks after Britain's tech darling Arm abandoned the London Stock Exchange in favor of New York.< /p>
Numis, an investment bank, reported a 55% drop in half-year profits on Friday as the London stock market struggles with a listing drought.
Last week, video game giant Activision accused the UK of being «closed for business» after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked its sale to Microsoft.
This comes after the new economic Mr Hunt's adviser warned against using tax cuts as a «quick fix» to boost growth and called for more generous incentives to increase business investment.
Anna Valero, Senior Fellow, London School of Economics Policy' The Center for Economic Efficiency said Friday the chancellor needs to go beyond tax cuts to revive sluggish UK growth.
Ms Valero told the Bloomberg UK Politics podcast: «If it were as simple as a tax cut, we would have seen it in years when we had particularly low corporate tax.»
«The tax environment matters, but there are many other things we need to do to improve growth.
“In a tax environment, we can think about incentives for investment rather than a flat rate.”
1,603 corporate tax lines
Mr Storonsky also accused regulators of putting pressure on BDO auditors, saying it resulted in to the delay in filing the company's financial statements for 2021.
In February, BDO issued a disclaimer on the company's financial performance, which dealt a blow to the fintech company.
“Regulators put pressure on BDO and as a result they became much more strict and risk averse, so they delayed accounts because the regulator was on their back,” he said.
Mr Storonsky told a conference this week that the IT problem that led to the qualified opinion has since been resolved.
The UK is not the only country that Revolut is facing scrutiny from regulators.
The financial app was fined by the European Central Bank (ECB) in February due to regulatory violations in the French branch.
The ECB imposed a previously undisclosed €15,000 (£13,100) fine following the failure of Revolut. have sufficient reserves in its French business.
The fine marks the company's latest regulatory sanction and comes after it received a €70,000 fine earlier this year for failing to submit audited Lithuanian financial statements on time.< /p>
Last September, Japan's financial regulator also imposed a business improvement order on Revolut Japan, saying there were «serious problems» in its controls.
A Revolut spokesperson said: «[ The ECB fine] stems from a minor operational issue that caused our minimum reserve at the time to be held in the ECB's reserve account rather than the local French branch's reserve account. This was quickly resolved.”
The ECB fine was revealed in recently released reports from the Lithuanian arm of Revolut, which is its main European base.
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