Revolut has denied media reports that the departure of its chief financial officer earlier this year was linked to questions around business practices at the challenger bank.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph last night, Peter O’Higgins resignation from the FinTech challenger in January coincided with the emergence of reports that Revolut’s board has launched an internal investigation in 2018 over an alleged failing in its sanction screening system.

The newspaper reported that an automated system designed to combat questionable financial transactions had been switched off between the months of July and September last year, meaning dubious transactions could have been made during that time.

In a statement provided to FStech, Nik Storonsky, founder and chief executive of Revolut, said the Telegraph article referred to: “A systems enhancement project that we were rolling out in parallel with our existing systems and controls – the more technologically advanced sanctions screening system was just one part of the overall enhancement project.

He confirmed: “Like any technology company, we always seek to improve our systems, the new systems were not calibrated to a standard that we would expect, so we reverted to our existing process until calibration was complete.”

Storonsky added: “At no point during this time do we believe that we failed to meet our legal or regulatory sanctions requirements. A thorough review has been undertaken of the transactions that were processed, which has confirmed that there were no sanctioned transactions. At no point did we formally notify the FCA.”

Commenting on the resignation of O’Higgins, Storonsky said he had been “pivotal” to the firm’s success, following a record $250 million funding round in April last year, valuing the company at $1.7 billion. He thanked him for his "commitment, enthusiasm and accomplishments."

O'Higgins, who joined the firm from JP Morgan in 2016, said: “Having been at Revolut for almost three years, I am immensely proud to have taken the company from £1 million revenue to £50 million revenue during this time.

“However, as Revolut begins to scale globally and applies to become a bank in multiple jurisdictions, the time has come to pass the reigns over to someone who has global retail banking experience at this level.”

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