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Revolut has been granted an extension for its annual results for the second year in a row, as the UK fintech company awaits a crucial final decision on its UK banking licence.
Tuesday’s announcement marks the latest bruising news for a company that has been hit this year by senior executive departures, investors cutting valuations and revelations of multimillion-dollar losses to fraudsters in the US.
Revolut’s results had been due by the end of September, nine months after the end of its financial year. However, the company has received an extension until the end of December from the government agency Companies House, just as it did for its 2021 results last year.
“We have received an extension for the filing of our 2022 accounts,” Revolut said. “We look forward to announcing our 2022 audit and annual report in due course. We continue to be pleased with the growth of the business, new products, higher user numbers and volumes, and increased financial metrics that result.”
In its last annual report, which missed the extended deadline and was only released in March, auditor BDO said there was a risk that £477mn of its £636mn in revenues could have been “materially misstated”. The company said at the time that its 2022 revenues had risen to more than £850mn.
The Companies House website says that private companies in the UK can apply for an extension to their accounts-filing deadline if there is a delay “because of an event outside your control” such as the destruction of records in a fire.
However, securing an extension is usually quite straightforward in practice, according to accountants.
Revolut would face shorter accounting deadlines if it were to become a public company — an ambition that has been complicated by delays in securing a UK banking licence and filing its accounts.
The company first applied for a banking licence at the start of 2021 and was valued at $33bn at its last funding round later that year, making it the UK’s most valuable private company at that time.
But since then it has been dogged by controversy, with the departure of key compliance personnel in 2022 and both its chief financial officer and its 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 $20mn in its own funds to organised criminals in the US last year before it could identify and close a loophole in its payment system.
Chief executive Nik Storonsky told the FT in May that delays in receiving its UK banking licence were the result of turmoil in the industry following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
A clash with shareholder SoftBank over its ownership structure has also been blamed, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority declined to comment on what impact, if any, the filing delay would have on Revolut’s two-year-old bid for a UK banking licence.
Additional reporting by Michael O’Dwyer
Source: Financial Times
