The Revolut card can be seen in this illustrated photo taken in Krakow, Poland on March 29, 2024.
Jakub Porzycki | nuphoto | Getty Images
LONDON – Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told CNBC he has not “stopped” with the UK government over the long-awaited delay in banking licenses for FinTech Giant Revolut.
Last week, the Financial Times reported that a meeting was cancelled, resolving that the UK’s Rachel Reeves and Revolut and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) had the BOE’s arm overseeing the bank – was cancelled after an intervention from Bailey.
Recognizing Revolut as a fully authorized bank has become an important issue for the UK government. Particularly because key figures in the tech industry are challenging tax changes that affect the wealthy.
However, in an interview with CNBC’s Ritika Gupta on Thursday, Bailey denied the proposal that BoE and Treasury’s relationship had driven a delay with Revolut’s bank licensing approval process.
“There were no drops in between [Reeves] And I’m about this or actually something,” he said.
Bailey can’t comment more specifically, but added that Prudential regulators are moving things up with digital banking startups during the “mobilization” process.
The Fintech giant was granted a restricted banking license from the UK PRA in July 2024, ending the long-standing application process that began in 2021.
This important victory has made Revolut what is known as the “mobilization” phase of the corporate journey to become a full-fledged bank.
During this period, the company is limited to holding only £50,000 of its total customer deposits. Thousand billion pounds of customers deposit major high street lenders such as Barclays, HSBC and Santander.
Revolut’s customers in the UK are not in the banking industry, but the company’s electronic money unit still serves. This means that it is not directly insured by a financial services compensation scheme that protects customers up to £85,000 in the event of a company failing.
The delay to Revolut was a conflict for the government. The government is under attack from the UK’s tech industry because it’s not doing enough to effectively compete with the US and other major hubs.
Bailey emphasized that “there is no trade-off between economic financial stability and growth.” However, he suggested he was open to changes in the rules to ensure the fintech sector could flourish.
“We are very open to making changes in the right place for them,” he said.
