Deirdre Halligan, one of Revolut’s top regulatory chiefs has stepped down from her role just weeks after Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky criticized the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for its sluggish progress on the firm’s banking license application. As the head of global affairs, wealth and trading, oversaw the firm’s expansion, authorizations, and regulatory affairs. Harry Gill, Revolut’s global head of regulatory compliance, resigned in May.
Deirdre Halligan (LinkedIn) is an experienced FinTech executive. She served as Chief Operating Officer of crypto exchange Coinbase in Ireland prior to her Revolut job.
Nikolay Storonsky went public with his criticism of the regulator in an interview with City A.M. last month, saying that the firm’s progress towards a banking license had been “slower than expectations” and had lagged behind international competitors.
“I definitely see the process is slower compared to other regulators,” he said. “I’ll give you an example – so we applied for 48 licenses across the globe and we received 44, and three of the licenses that we haven’t received are actually in the UK.”
Storonsky added that staffing pressures at the FCA may explain the hold-up, and recommended that certain key performance indicators be put in place at the regulator, as well as “stricter timelines”, more people or “more efficient people”.
