UK fintech firm Revolut’s much-delayed accounts reveal first annual profit

theguardian.com:

Revolut, the UK’s most valuable fintech company, which has faced a string of controversies, has turned its first annual profit, much-delayed accounts reveal.

The company has been praised as a high-growth success story by leading UK politicians including the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, but it has also been criticised for the late filing of accounts, as well as EU regulatory breaches and fines.

Allegations of an aggressive work environment, which it has denied, have also come under scrutiny as the company pushes toward a valuable UK banking licence.

The fintech, which has ambitions to be the “Amazon of banking” and which cannot yet hold deposits or make loans to customers, made a profit of £26.3m in the year to December 2021. The company’s revenues rose from £220m in 2020 to £636m in 2021.

Revolut did not put a deadline on when it was set to receive a UK banking licence in the 2021 report, instead saying it was “in the advanced stages of its application” to British regulators.

It added that revenues topped £850m ($1bn) in the year to December 2022.

Nik Storonsky, its chief executive, said: “We have achieved our first full year of profit and shown that we can accelerate customer growth, at scale, and grow revenue across all of our product lines.

“In 2021, we were granted a full banking licence from the European Central Bank and welcomed millions of new customers.”

Revolut’s accounts for the year ending December 2021 were due to be published on the British business register, Companies House, in September last year. An extension to up to December was then also missed by the fintech.

The delay is understood to have come after BDO, which has been Revolut’s auditor since 2018, was chastised by the accountancy regulator for an “unacceptable”