Revolut hires financial crime boss

Revolut has hired a financial crime boss and two other senior executives as the digital bank bids to stabilise working practices at the fast-growing business.

The London-based start-up with six million customers across Europe said it appointed Philip Doyle as director of financial crime risk to make it “the most secure and trusted financial platform in the world”.

Doyle’s previous roles include head of financial crime at UK-based clearing bank ClearBank and fraud prevention manager at US credit card business Visa.

Despite its rapid growth Revolut, founded in 2015, has faced questions this year from regulators over its money-laundering controls, recorded the highest number of customer complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service for a digital bank, and taken potshots from former employees about a toxic work atmosphere as it expands.

New hires

Revolut competes against digital rivals Monzo and Starling Bank in the UK, and earlier this year launched in the US.

Revolut has also poached Wolfgang Bardorf from Deutsche Bank to become its treasurer. Bardorf was global head of liquidity models and methodologies at the German lender. He is also a former executive director in corporate treasury at Goldman Sachs.

The digital bank completes its current hiring round by appointing Stefan Wille as deputy chief financial officer. Wille was the senior vice president of finance at German challenger bank N26 and was previously corporate finance manager at Credit Suisse.

Revolut, founded by former Credit Suisse trader Nik Storonsky (pictured) and former Deutsche Bank systems engineer Vlad Yatsenko, is bidding to strengthen its corporate governance and customer service levels after rapid growth. Since its launch four years ago, the start-up has attracted $336m in funding, boasting a valuation of $1.7bn. 

Beefing up the board

Storonsky said: “This year we’ve made some exceptional senior appointments to the company. As we continue to strengthen our existing governance and processes we’ve hired some of the most talented professionals, with many years experience, delivering world-class business practices. I’m looking forward to welcoming Philip, Stefan and Wolfgang to Revolut’s executive team and I have no doubt their knowledge will be invaluable as we grow.”

Last month Revolut hired the former head of finance at challenger lender Metro Bank as its director of finance.

Earlier this year, the digital bank lined up former Goldman Sachs Europe boss Michael Sherwood to join its board, while former co-chief executive Standard Life Aberdeen Martin Gilbert will become its chairman.