Kemi Badenoch seeks emergency meeting with Revolut over fear he might leave the UK

Ms. Badenok confirmed that she is trying to arrange a meeting with Nikolay Storonsky, Revolut's CEO. Credit: Anadolu Agency

Kemi Badenoch, business secretary, is seeking an emergency meeting with Revolut over fears the $33bn (£26bn) tech company could leave the UK amid high taxes and bureaucracy.< /p>

Business and Trade sources confirmed they wanted to meet Nikolai Storonsky, chief executive of Revolut, just days after he attacked Britain's «extreme bureaucracy».

Officials in France are speculated to and Spain have courted London-headquartered Revolut in recent weeks as bosses grow frustrated with delays in obtaining a UK banking license.

A Revolut spokesman said: «We are a British company and London is our home.» The spokesperson did not respond to a question whether Revolut would accept the Business and Trade Department's request for a meeting.

Mr Storonsky lashed out at the UK on Friday, saying it was having a hard time doing business and would never choose London as a place to list the company.

Mr Storonsky said: «The UK has higher taxes and an extremely bureaucratic regulator.»

Nikolai Storonsky, chief executive of Revolut, says it's «difficult to do business in the UK». Photo: Tom Stockill/Camera Press

On Sunday, Revolut's chief executive launched another torrent of criticism, slamming the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over delays in issuing him a banking license, which the company sees as critical to providing loans and other services to its 5 .8 million customers in the UK.

“Ultimately, it’s not really us, but usually the banking crisis that we are seeing at the moment makes regulators extra careful,” he told the Financial Times.

Challenge banks Monzo and Starling have full banking licenses in the UK, unlike Revolut. The company has been applying to the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) for about two years now.

Revolut became the UK's most valuable fintech company in 2021 after a $33 billion funding round. It overtook Checkout.com last year to become the most valuable startup in Europe after the payment company's valuation dropped.

However, some Revolut investors have since written off their stakes, with Schroders reportedly in April almost halved the value of its £10.1m stake. The write-off suggests that Revolut's total value may have shrunk to around $17.7 billion, representing a loss of $15 billion over two years.

Revolut's finances have been in the spotlight in recent months after the company filed its annual returns late. with Companies House following concerns expressed by its auditor.

BDO, the UK's fifth largest accounting firm, said in March: «We were unable to verify the completeness and occurrence of certain revenues for the year ended 31 December 2021

The auditors said they failed to audit £477m of Revolut's £636m sales for the year.

BDO stated that Revolut's internal IT systems are «failing to provide sufficient appropriate assurance» regarding the revenue streams from the area of ​​business, including the currency exchange and wealth department, which includes revenue from cryptocurrency trading.

BDO did not no warnings about Revolut's ability to continue in business for the foreseeable future. Auditors were able to verify 100% of client cash balances held on behalf of clients by third parties.

Mr. Storonsky on Friday accused the regulator of putting pressure on BDO and said the IT problem has since been resolved.

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more strict and risk averse, which delayed reporting because the regulator was on their back,” he said.

1603 Business investment falls

Revolut is the latest company to criticize the UK trading environment in recent months.

Softbank, the Japanese investment fund that owns computer chip developer Arm, rejected Rishi Sunak's personal requests to list a business in London in March. , choosing the US instead.

Similarly, Peter Jackson, founder of parent group Betfair and Paddy Power Flutter, opted for a secondary listing in New York in February, saying the US offered him a «bigger pool of liquidity.» ” than in the UK.

The Financial Conduct Authority plans to revise the listing rules for UK markets in the hope of attracting more overseas companies and investors to London.