Eight executives exit Revolut during lockdown

The fintech is also on the hunt for a UK Chairperson to help secure a UK banking licence, despite the constant movement at the top.

Digital banking service Revolut has lost eight top employees since the middle of March this year, although the departures are not linked to Covid-19.

The news, first reported by Financial News, comes amid a period of uncertainty for Revolut as, just two weeks ago, it was revealed that co-founders Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko were to forgo their salaries for a year and top executives would take a 25 per cent pay cut to ensure their employees got theirs.

First on the list to depart the e-money institution was Revolut’s chief financial officer, David Maclean, who left the position after less than six months on 16 March 2020.

Soon after, Revolut named former chief financial officer of Standard Life Aberdeen Bill Rattray, a longtime colleague of recently appointed Chairman Martin Gilbert, as interim CFO

Just two weeks after Maclean left, Revolut’s head of wealth and trading André Mohamed, who co-founded trading platform Freetrade, left at the beginning of April.

Last week it was also reported that the banking service had also lost its deputy chief financial officer, Stefan Wille, and its interim head of finance Anna Borzenko, who had come to the end of her contract.

The most recent bunch to leave include lead data scientist Abhi Thanendran, global head of employer branding Anca Pintilie, global head of reporting Alexander Bratz and North America general manager Dan Westgarth, who spoke at the AltFi Toronto Summit 2018.

The reason for a constant movement at the top of the UK challenger is reportedly Revolut’s relentless quest for profitability and its unforgiving, ruthless culture—first exposed by Wired just over a year ago.

Despite the management reshuffle, Revolut is also on the hunt for a UK Chairperson to help it obtain a UK banking licence, something the bank has operated in the UK for five years without one.

A spokesperson for Revolut provided this statement: "The Financial News article is inaccurate and misleading. The majority of the colleagues mentioned have moved to exciting new roles as part of their career progression or have left for personal reasons."

"All were planned long before the effects of the global pandemic had taken hold and are in no way related to COVID-19. As we continue to grow from start-up to a large international company, we fully expect some of our team to move to new projects and are delighted that their time at Revolut will help them do so.”

UPDATE 29-04-2020 - Article was amended after publication with a statement from Revolut and clarification that the employee departures were not as a result of coronavirus.