Revolut’s battle to secure a UK banking licence has been given a boost after auditors said the fintech company had resolved issues relating to revenues and internal controls.
In delayed annual accounts released on Friday, the British fintech firm said the matter of potentially misstated revenues in 2021 had been “resolved” and said auditors had approved the latest set of figures.
This will raise hopes that Revolut can move closer to securing its long-awaited banking licence, which has been held up since it first applied in January 2021.
Revolut was heavily scrutinised earlier this year after BDO raised warnings over almost £477m of revenues in its accounts.
At the time, auditors said revenues “may be materially misstated” because of flaws linked to internal systems.
However, Revolut said in its latest results that this hurdle has now been cleared.
The fintech firm’s latest financials revealed a £25.4m loss for the year, down from a £39.8m profit in 2021.
That was driven by rising costs offsetting a windfall from higher interest rates, as revenues rose by 45pc to £922.5m.
Despite waving through Revolut’s accounts, BDO said there are still potential issues regarding the “comparability” of revenue figures between 2021 and 2022.
Nik Storonsky, Revolut’s chief executive, said the firm “remained committed” to the firm’s UK banking licence application.
The company received an extension to file its 2022 accounts after filing its 2021 numbers months late.
Revolut has been waiting more than two years to secure a banking licence, which would allow it to conduct more regulated activities, such as mortgage and credit card lending.
The Telegraph revealed in May that the Bank of England was considering rejecting Revolut’s banking licence application.
Threadneedle Street told Revolut that it must produce a set of accounts with an unqualified audit opinion and simplify its share structure before a licence could be granted.
Victor Stinga, Revolut’s chief financial officer, said the company had “since remediated these gaps” and worked with BDO “to conduct extensive testing of both the design and effectiveness of our controls”.
He said: “While these historical events have had a knock-on impact on the timing of publication of these financial statements, we are now back in a position to return to a regular reporting schedule starting from next cycle.”
Mr Storonsky has previously complained that Britain’s “extremely bureaucratic” regulators were risking innovation.
While valued at £24bn by investors, several backers have written down the value of their stakes in the company amid a wider sell-off of fintech stocks.
Revolut’s results revealed it doubled its headcount to 6,000 employees last year, while it also suffered a card payment fraud issue that cost the company £17m.
