Did Revolut need people from investment banks to surmount its biggest challenge?

Nik Storonsky has never been shy about his preference for hiring young upstarts over experienced corporate types with big names on their CV. While that has paid dividends in making Revolut the most recognizable fintech in Europe, it still faced criticism over its inability to land a UK banking license. Now, at last, it has achieved one, and it seemingly had help getting there from some corporate veterans.

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Over the past year, Revolut hired at least 22 regulatory staff in the UK, the majority of which came from either banks or consultancies. The most senior hire was Edinburgh-based Mark Brydson, who joined in August to work on statistical reporting oversight; he spent the last two decades at Morgan Stanley, where he was an executive director and EMEA financial reporting assurance lead. He arrived just a few months before regulators delayed the approval of Revolut's UK license over the bank's risk controls.

Since then, progress has evidently been made. Coincidentally or not, Brydson brought in some ex-colleagues from Morgan Stanley during that time. In November it hired Michael Paton, who spent seven years at Morgan Stanley but was most recently a regulatory reporting VP at Barclays. Chris Reilly also joined in November from Morgan Stanley's ESG quality assurance team; Brydson also held the role of global ESG internal assurance lead at Morgan Stanley. David O'Brien joined from Bank of America's global liquidity management team in January, but he too spent five years at Morgan Stanley. All three men are based in Scotland alongside Brydson.

It's not just Scotsmen from Morgan Stanley joining Revolut's regulatory team. Recent hires include two ex-JPMorgan employees, two ex-HSBC and seven with experience at a Big Four firm.

Perhaps working in Revolut's compliance team gives something that a bank or consultancy doesn't. Insiders at investment banks have frequently complained to us that their work is unfulfilling and under-resourced. Solving one of Revolut's most historic bugbears may have been a more intellectually stimulating challenge.

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