Revolut growth skyrockets as auditor BDO grants clean bill of health

(Revolut)

Revolut today edged a step closer on its mission to secure a UK banking licence after Britain’s biggest fintech posted a surge in profits and was given a clean bill of health by auditors.

The London-based business, which yesterday celebrated its ninth anniversary and will shortly move into a huge new office space in Canary Wharf, recorded a £344 million profit for 2023, compared to £6 million the previous year, while revenues nearly doubled to £1.8 billion.

That was helped along by rising interest rates, which added an extra £400 million in interest income during the year, as well as a more-than 50% jump in customer subscription income, which now accounts for around £250 million of the firm’s turnover.

Revolut was also handed a squeaky-clean audit report by accountants BDO after two successive years of qualified opinions, in a major boost to the firm’s hopes of ending a three year-long wait to be handed a UK banking licence by financial watchdog, the Prudential Regulatory Authority. Previous audit reports warned on problems with revenue recognition connected to Revolut’s IT systems. Since 2021 the company’s annual IT spend has nearly tripled to £47.4 million.

“We are continuing to work closely with the PRA on our UK banking licence application,” Revolut said.

In contrast to wider trends in the tech sector, which as a whole saw more than a quarter of a million layoffs in 2023 according to job cuts tracker layoffd.fyi, Revolut has been on a hiring spree, adding more than 2,000 staff to top 8,000 by the end of last year, with plans to increase headcount by an even greater number in 2024.

Co-founder and CEO Nik Storonsky said: “Revolut remains poised for exponential growth. We accelerated customer growth and increased the adoption of our products across the board, driving a record year for Revolut financially.

“We continue to work towards becoming our customers' trusted primary financial services provider.”