The United Kingdom has been one of the biggest hotbeds of Fintech innovation over the past half a decade and the biggest company to have emerged from the industry so far is Revolut. It regards itself as the ‘Amazon of banking’ and has made it possible for thousands of people to send money easily. However, at the same time, the company has also faced a lot of scrutiny from regulators with regards to its policies regarding verification of customers. In addition to that, there have also been allegations of money laundering through the Revolut app and hence, it was perhaps time for the company to do something regarding its corporate governance issues.
In a new development, it has emerged that Revolut is all set to hire former executive at Goldman Sachs Michael Sherwood to help fine-tune the company’s corporate governance policies. It is a significant appointment and because Sherwood was an executive at possibly the world’s most powerful merchant banking institution, it goes without saying that corporate governance should not be an issue for the company anymore. It is a particularly important appointment as Revolut is now trying to expand aggressively and into new territories quickly.
If there is a corporate governance cloud over the company during that period, then it will definitely hamper its plans of expansion. Recently, the company expanded into Australia and it plans to open new outposts in other countries as well. In addition to scrutiny from the authorities form the UK, Revolut also faced scrutiny from the parliament of Lithuania, as lawmakers questions whether the company was going anything to combat money laundering on its app. Sherwood is a seasoned mover in the world of high finance and had spent three decades at Goldman Sachs. It is believed that at one time he was in consideration to become the Chief Executive Officer of Goldman as well. However, that did not come to pass and Sherwood will now bring all his experience into play to turn Revolut into a stronger institution.
