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Also Revolut CEO's father is CEO of Gazprom (or some division, I'm not sure I understand their structure). And it got it's money from DST Global incubator, whic
by glogla 7y ago
Also Revolut CEO's father is CEO of Gazprom (or some division, I'm not sure I understand their structure). And it got it's money from DST Global incubator, which has Kremlin ties.
Meaning, despite their London HQ, Revolut is Russian owned and Russian managed pseudo-bank.
Giving them more money might not be great idea.
- Peroni 7y agoConsidering both senior politicians in Lithuania and Luxembourg have raised formal concerns about Revolut's bid for a bank licence, specifically because of the CEO's alleged Kremlin ties, I'm willing to assume there's some substance to that concern.
- glogla 7y agoThem not having the license also means that the deposits aren't insured the way they normally are in EU, meaning you get nothing if things go wrong. We use Revolut around the office to split bills for lunches, etc, but I wouldn't keep more than few bucks in there.
- tshanmu 7y agoedit: They have a banking license but current account customers now still get an e-money account only - quite confusing state. With an e-money account, the client money is supposed to be in a separate account and if they go under, you still get your money. (FCA regulates all this) They have a banking license from Lithuania (but customers are not switched to it) which might be revoked by Lithuania and they are trying for another license in Ireland. Thanks to comment below - edited this make more sense.
- krn 7y agoRevolut received its banking license from Lithuania in December 2018, but hasn't switched its customers over yet. After the family connection with Gazprom became public, Lithuania started considering revoking the license, and Revolut applied for another one in Ireland. It's not clear now, when and which banking license Revolut will start using. It's worth pointing out, though, that Revolut already has more customers than there are tax payers in Lithuania[1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/dec/22/lithuania-iceland-banking-revolut https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/dec/22/lithuania-icel...
- tshanmu 7y agothanks, you are right, I have edited my original response (which itself is quite confusing now) - the Revolut state of regulation quiet confusing - better to stick with Monzo in UK/N26 in EU.
- secfirstmd 7y agoAs an Irish person who watched the crapshoot of our banking regulation in 2000s I can assure you that this does not fill me with confidence.
- krilly 7y agoRevolut seems overkill for that, maybe try Splitwise?
- alistairSH 7y agoVenmo seems to be the standard here in the US. Is it not as common overseas?
- falsedan 7y agolol no it assumes a US account. it's not even listed in the app stores here. people mostly use bank transfers for everything since it's free and fast
- alistairSH 7y agoHaha, yeah, US banking is pretty awful in terms of ease-of-use. I don't use Venmo myself - I'm at a point where I'd rather just pick up the check that try to split it (using any method). And let me friends pick up the next meal.
- gertrunde 7y agoI tend to find that Venmo is a bit redundant in the UK - feature-wise, I'm not sure that it does anything that the standard bank mobile apps can't do? (There's a standard person-to-person via mobile number payments system that most banks support & integrate into their apps (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paym) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paym)).
- alistairSH 7y agoThat's nice. I wish US banks would do something like that, so we don't have to rely on 3rd party apps. But, they couldn't even roll out chip & PIN properly.
- zapita 7y agoThere’s a YC company called Ysplit which solves this exact problem. I highly recommend it. ysplit.com
- londons_explore 7y agoThey have a UK bank license now, so deposits are covered up to EUR 100k They're only covered against bankruptcy though - if someone steals your phone and drains your account, you're SOL.
- JumpCrisscross 7y agoGazprom ties, AML system randomly going offline, regulated by Lithuania...this looks more like a money-laundering scheme than a bank.
- gil 7y agoWhy does being regulated by Lithuania make it look it like a money-laundering scheme?
- chosenbreed37 7y agoGood point. I believe there are EU directives in place which mandate that if an institution is authorised in one member state it can operate in any other state
- benj111 7y agoIt's HQed in London, so not being regulated there raises questions. I would guess that regulation in the UK is better, but I'm not really up on my Eastern European/pan European banking regulation to definitively say.
- TomMarius 7y agoDoes it? It seems logical, thinking about Brexit.
- 7y ago
- michalu 7y ago> it got it's money from DST Global So does Facebook, DoorDash, FlipKart and hundred+ other Silicon Valley companies. Revolut also has money from Seedcamp, Balderton, Index and tons of other VCs. > Revolut is Russian owned and Russian managed pseudo-bank Since when being a Russian is a crime? Besides if a company is London based it is regulated by UK authorities. You make it sound like the guy being Russian, DST being Russian (and allegedly having "ties" to Kremlin) is somewhat a red flag. I would like to hear more on the reasoning behind how all that is negative? Don't Silicon Valley CEOs have ties to White House? Should I not use their products? :)
- Aeolun 7y agoI don’t think the problem is that it has ties to a political entity. The problem is that that entity is a de-facto dictatorship that is well known for being corrupt.
- michalu 7y agoThe fact that CEOs father works as a deputy executive in a government owned company qualifies does not qualify as "ties," in any meaningful way. Most shareholders and the regulator in control are western based and run by people whose parents aren't employed in Russia's public sector, as far as I know. Show me a government that's not known to be corrupt.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> I would like to hear more on the reasoning behind how all that is negative? There is outsized demand for money laundering from Russia, in large part owing to its endemic and unchecked corruption. This is why most recent European money laundering scandals have involved Russian money [1][2][3]. So when you see an AML deficient operation with multiple Russian ties based out of Lithuania, it raises legitimate questions. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-danske-bank-eu-regulator/danske-bank-pulls-out-of-russia-baltics-after-money-laundering-backlash-idUSKCN1Q812Y https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-danske-bank-eu-regulator/... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/18/deutsche-bank-shares-slip-amid-20-billion-russian-money-laundering-allegations.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/18/deutsche-bank-shares-slip-am... [3] https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2019/03/07/519860.htm https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2019/03/...
- catacombs 7y ago> Meaning, despite their London HQ, Revolut is Russian owned and Russian managed pseudo-bank. Giving them more money might not be great idea. Giving any Russian oligarchs more money is always a bad idea.