Deirdre Halligan, head of global affairs, wealth and trading at Revolut has stepped down from her role just weeks after CEO Nikolay Storonsky rounded on the Financial Conduct Authority for its tardiness in dishing out a UK banking licence for the firm.
Halligan oversaw the firm's expansion, authorisation and regulatory affairs and had a direct line to the FCA.
Her departure, first reported by The Telegraph follows the resignation of a string of compliance executive at the firm, with Harry Gill, Revolut’s global head of regulatory compliance, resigning in May, and the chief of operational risk and head of UK compliance also leaving in recent months.
In an interview with City A.M. last month, Storonsky said that progress on a banking licence application in the UK had been slow and regulators had lagged behind their international counterparts.
Revolut filed the paperwork for its UK banking licence in January last year.
“I definitely see the process is slower compared to other regulators,” he said. “I’ll give you an example - so we applied for 48 licences across the globe and we received 44, and three of the licences that we haven’t received are actually in the UK.”
Culture and controls in the firm’s regulatory and compliance teams have reportedly raised concerns at the regulator, as well as whether it has an appropriate amount of employees to manage transactions, the Telegraph reported.
It's not just the banking licence which is held up. Revolut is still awaiting approval for its crypto offering from the regulator, after being held on a temporary register alongside Copper and CEX.IO, with 35 firms already being granted full approval by the watchdog.
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