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Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

standard.co.uk

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Re: Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

#31

Post by bboygravity »

exizt88 wrote: post #27
rchaud wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're providing financial services in a heaivily regulated industry, it's not that big of a leap. The company has a pending application for a UK banking license for the past 28 months; the turnaround time for that in the UK is 12 months. Yet even now, they have filed their accounts several months late, and without a clean bill of health from the auditor. The CFO of all people should have advised withdrawal of the…

I don’t know if average turnaround time applies here, because Revolut is getting a license on top of an already huge business. But again, all of what you said indicates that Revolut has fucked up. But it doesn’t mean they are doing WireCard levels of fraud, or any fraud at all.

In this era of bank-runs, 2008 having been can-kicked, a massive regulatory crisis in the US markets (short hedge funds succesfully trying to cellar box banks and other stocks deliberately by shorting with counterfeit stock), the US about to enter hyper-inflation this decade, derrivatives crash incoming, FTX corruption, etc.

I'm NOT going to give Revolut the benefit of the doubt I don't think :p

Re: Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

#32

Post by ceejayoz »

bhouston wrote: post #13
ceejayoz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't figuring that out the point of investigating?

I am not sure you can start a crime investigation until there is an accusation of a crime. A failing audit isn’t enough. Financial oversight groups should start an investigation but it probably shouldn’t be called criminal at this point. Just an oversight issue where they demand more info.

You can absolutely start a criminal investigation without accusing someone of a crime.

Re: Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

#33

Post by bboygravity »

riffraff wrote: post #29
pavlov wrote: post #21

So did “fintech” just mean “shitty bank” all along, same way that crypto was just shitty penny stocks.

Revolut has had a fee questionable moments already, this does not seem to have been the case for other European fintech operations (wise, klarna, n26 etc). So yeah, I think a lot of fintech is not particularly good, but I don't think we can generalize to the level of the crypto boom.

You might want to try the search term "N26 locking customer accounts for no reason with no recourse".

Re: Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

#35

Post by TeMPOraL »

Moldoteck wrote: post #34
pavlov wrote: post #21

So did “fintech” just mean “shitty bank” all along, same way that crypto was just shitty penny stocks.

Before revolut our bank apps were pure garbage, so they improved them for compensation and I give revolut credit for this

I guess this is a bit like my take on Uber - they may be rotten to the core and damaging the very fabric of society, but at the very least they pushed competitors of all kinds to improve the hailing/ordering experience, so now taxis and rideshares around the world can be ordered via an app, with built-in map and address search.

Back to Revolut - I'm of two minds about bank apps. On the one hand, good apps are good, and some things really get streamlined this way. On the other hand, this only sets us up for another battle in the war on general-purpose computing: a fight over mobile device ownership.

Banks didn't just improve the UX of their apps. Some made them the primary or sole remote interface to one's accounts. Many (most?) are now using apps for 2FA, and heavily pushing it - with such banks, using the web interface from a PC browser still requires confirming any meaningful operation via the smartphone app.

The problem here is, banks are one of the most eager users of remote device attestation features, and (by being big and full of money) they have all the leverage over users and smartphone vendors alike. Many bank apps will refuse to run if they detect the phone isn't pristine and fully locked down by the vendor - and with modern phones now coming with built-in APIs for such checks, rooting the phone or flashing it with custom firmware is quickly losing all value. After all, what good is a rooted phone if you can't use it for anything important that smartphones now do?

Re: Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

#36

Post by rahimnathwani »

The article says:

  “There is not any doubt over the completeness of the balance sheet, which, in turn, logically means that total revenue is also correct,” he[0] said.
By my reading, this directly contradicts the statement of the auditors, published on Revolut's web site[1]:

  As described in the basis for qualified opinion section of our report, we were unable to satisfy ourselves concerning the completeness and occurrence of certain revenues for the year ended 31 December 2021. We have concluded that where the other information refers to revenue or related balances these may be materially misstated for the same reason.
By my reading, this says that it's not just revenue that may be materially misstated, but revenue or related balances. So the statement by the CFO directly contradicts what the auditors say about both the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet.

[0] Salovaara, the CFO.

[1] https://assets.revolut.com/pdf/Revolut_Ltd_YE_2021_Annual%20... which is linked on https://www.revolut.com/financial-statements/

Re: Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

#37

Post by detaro »

riffraff wrote: post #29
pavlov wrote: post #21

So did “fintech” just mean “shitty bank” all along, same way that crypto was just shitty penny stocks.

Revolut has had a fee questionable moments already, this does not seem to have been the case for other European fintech operations (wise, klarna, n26 etc). So yeah, I think a lot of fintech is not particularly good, but I don't think we can generalize to the level of the crypto boom.

N26 has been in trouble with its national banking regulator repeatedly, although mostly for lack of effective anti-fraud measures.

Re: Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

#38

Post by tzs »

rchaud wrote: post #23
exizt88 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a huge leap between fucking up your accounting systems and doing outright fraud. This isn’t even close to what WC was doing, at least from the available information.

If you're providing financial services in a heaivily regulated industry, it's not that big of a leap. The company has a pending application for a UK banking license for the past 28 months; the turnaround time for that in the UK is 12 months. Yet even now, they have filed their accounts several months late, and without a clean bill of health from the auditor. The CFO of all people should have advised withdrawal of the…

> The company has a pending application for a UK banking license for the past 28 months; the turnaround time for that in the UK is 12 months

Wow...I'm a bit surprised. We've had a pending application for VAT registration in the UK since sometime in the 1st quarter of 2019. I had assumed that if a government is so short of resources that they can't manage to process applications to collect taxes for them, they would probably also be very slow on applications for financial things that don't directly give them money.

Every time we ask about our VAT application, they just say it is still processing. They told us to collect VAT, but to call it something else like "additional fee", and hold it until they get around to processing the application.

Re: Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

#39

Post by balderdash »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #36

The article says: “There is not any doubt over the completeness of the balance sheet, which, in turn, logically means that total revenue is also correct,” he[0] said. By my reading, this directly contradicts the statement of the auditors, published on Revolut's web site[1]: As described in the basis for qualified opinion section of our report, we were unable to satisfy ourselves concerning the completeness and occurr…

And the the thing that links those two financial statements is the statement of cash flows, which tells the real story…funny that wasn’t mentioned…

Re: Revolut CFO quits after auditor BDO warning

#40

Post by nly »

Moldoteck wrote: post #34
pavlov wrote: post #21

So did “fintech” just mean “shitty bank” all along, same way that crypto was just shitty penny stocks.

Before revolut our bank apps were pure garbage, so they improved them for compensation and I give revolut credit for this

Monzo was founded the same year as Revolut and Starling predate both. Both have had, and continue to have, great apps.

I hate the Revolut app. It's busy messy and half of it is ads for their premium and affiliate products.

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