Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, is seeking an emergency meeting with Revolut over fears the $33bn (£26bn) technology company may abandon the UK amid frustration with high taxes and red tape, according to The Telegraph.
Sources at the Department for Business and Trade confirmed that it wanted to meet with Nikolay Storonsky, chief executive of Revolut, just days after he attacked Britain’s “extreme bureaucracy”.
Officials in France and Spain are understood to have courted Revolut, which is headquartered in London, in recent weeks as bosses grow increasingly frustrated over delays in securing a UK banking licence.
A spokesman for Revolut said: “We’re a British company and London is our home.” The spokesman did not respond when asked whether Revolut would accept the Business and Trade Department’s request for a meeting.
Mr Storonsky launched a barrage of criticism against Britain on Friday, saying it was hard to do business and would never choose London as a place to list the company.
Mr Storonsky said: “In the UK there are higher taxes to pay and an extremely bureaucratic regulator”.
Revolut’s chief executive launched a further torrent of criticism on Sunday when he criticised the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) delays in granting it a banking licence, which the company views as crucial to offer loans and other services to its 5.8 million UK customers.
“Ultimately it is not really us, it is generally the banking crisis we see at the moment that makes regulators extra cautious,” he told the Financial Times.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
