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British fintech Revolut has been granted an extension to publish its annual results for the second consecutive year as it awaits a crucial final decision on its UK banking license.
Tuesday’s announcement marks the latest news for the company, which has been hit this year by senior executive departures, investors slashing valuations and millions of dollars in losses to U.S. fraudsters.
Revolut’s performance will be announced at the end of September, nine months after the end of its financial year. However, the company has been granted an extension by government agency Companies House until the end of December, as it did last year for its 2021 results.
“We have been notified of the extension of the filing of our 2022 accounts,” Revolut said. “We look forward to publishing our 2022 audit and annual report in due course. We remain excited about the growth of the business, new products, higher user numbers and volumes and the impact this will bring.” We are pleased with the increase in financial indicators.”
Auditors BDO said in its last annual report, which missed an extended deadline and was only published in March, that £477m of its £636m revenue could be at risk of “material misstatement”. The company said at the time that revenue had risen to more than £850m in 2022.
The Companies House website says private companies in the UK can apply for an extension to their accounts filing deadline if there are delays “due to events outside your control”, such as records being destroyed in a fire.
However, in practice securing an extension is often very simple, according to accountants.
Revolut would face shorter accounting deadlines if it became a public company – an ambition complicated by delays in obtaining a UK banking license and filing accounts.
The company first applied for a banking license in early 2021 and was valued at $33 billion in its final funding round later that year, making it the most valuable private company in the UK at the time.
But the company has been mired in controversy since then, with the departure of key compliance staff in 2022 and the departures of its chief financial officer and UK banking chief executive earlier this year.
Revolut’s systems have also come under scrutiny. The Financial Times reported in July that Revolut had lost more than $20 million of its own funds to U.S. organized criminals last year before it was able to identify and fix vulnerabilities in its payment systems.
Chief Executive Nik Storonsky told the Financial Times in May that the delay in obtaining a UK banking charter was the result of industry turmoil following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
People familiar with the matter revealed that conflicts over the ownership structure with shareholder SoftBank were also blamed.
The Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority declined to comment on the impact, if any, of the application delay on Revolut’s application for a UK banking license two years ago.
Additional reporting by Michael O’Dwyer
Svlook
