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  • Revolut to Roll Out Stock Trading Feature in Singapore

    Revolut to Roll Out Stock Trading Feature in Singapore

    The U.K.-headquartered fintech has obtained a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

    Revolut is planning to roll out a stock trading feature on its app to Singapore customers, scheduled for the first half of 2022, which allows users to buy fractional shares in U.S. listed companies, the neobank announced in a statement on Monday.

    The trading feature is free to set up with a standard Revolut account, and there is no account minimum required to invest, with the platform offering users several commission-free trades a month, depending on their subscription plan

    Besides Trading, Revolut Singapore said it is also looking to bring Commodities and Cryptocurrencies to customers herem subject to securing the relevant approvals. Revolut currently has around 16 million users worldwide.

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  • Revolut Singapore Compliance Chief Joins Swiss Private Bank

    Revolut Singapore Compliance Chief Joins Swiss Private Bank

    He leaves the fintech a little over a year after he joined from Credit Suisse.

    Rayson Tan, who joined Revolut Singapore in September 2019, has left the company. Tan joined the fintech as chief compliance officer, and was later appointed chief risk officer and head of legal in April 2020.

    Since his departure, Tan has taken on a new role at Geneva-based private bank Pictet as chief risk officer, Asia. A spokesperson for Pictet confirmed the appointment as of 4 November 2020.

    Based in Singapore, Tan is responsible for overseeing the firm’s risk management framework across Asia, covering all key risks (including strategic, operational, regulatory, financial, reputational, etc.), as well as management of its Risk and Compliance teams.

    Tan was one of Revolut’s most senior hires. He spent 18 years in banking, and was a managing director in the Compliance & Regulatory Affairs department of Credit Suisse.

    He was previously with Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank in various country, regional and global compliance roles.

  • Revolut Ramps Up Growth Efforts in Singapore

    Revolut Ramps Up Growth Efforts in Singapore

    The fintech hopes to build on the momentum it has gained amid the social and economic challenges brought about by the pandemic.

    Revolut Singapore has made a number of additions to its growing team in Singapore bring onboard digital strategist Sam Chui as marketing manager and media specialist Deborah Tan-Pink as communications manager.

    Chui joins from local marketing agency GoodStuph, while Tan-Pink resigns from her role as CEO of an edtech startup to join the company. She previously spent more than 10 years in lifestyle publishing, including a stint as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Singapore. The pair will report to Pam Chuang, Revolut Singapore’s head of growth.

    Our hiring strategy is to attract top talents in the region with great expertise in specific fields. Both Deborah and Sam have on-ground knowledge of the Singapore market when it comes to our target customers, Chuang said about the new hires.

    The total number of e-commerce transactions among Revolut customers more than doubled during Singapore’s «circuit breaker» period earlier this year. Contactless payments also grew by 30 percent, and now comprises 90 percent of its transactions, Tan-Pink said.

    Revolut is currently seeing a recovery in in-store spending, particularly for restaurant dining, with close to 3x growth in total transactions. Year to date, our daily active people figure is close to pre-Covid levels and we are poised to grow this number further this quarter and into 2021, she said.

    The company said it has enjoyed «very positive momentum» since its launch one year ago, with over 70,000 customers, of which 65 percent are Singaporeans. The average age of the Revolut customer in Singapore is 35 and some three-quarters of its active customers use the Revolut card for e-commerce purchases, it noted.

    The company is preparing to bring Revolut Junior to the market in the last quarter of 2020, and expects a full roll-out of Revolut Business at end of the first quarter next year.

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  • Revolut Singapore Partners Income to Offer Insurance

    Revolut Singapore Partners Income to Offer Insurance

    Both platforms see customer empowerment and digitally-enabled collaborations as key to supporting customer needs. Snack by NTUC Income (Income) and Revolut Singapore will work together to incorporate lifestyle-based insurance offerings on Revolut’s digital banking app to provide more flexibility and boost customer empowerment in money management.

    Snack, launched in June, is a stackable, micro-insurance offering that embeds the purchase of coverage into daily activities. Its partners include Visa, EZLink, FoodPanda and more.

    The partnership with Snack layers insurance protection over our Revolut’s existing money management features and allows our customers access to micro-insurance products that are underwritten by NTUC Income. Customers will have the ability to purchase insurance products such as Term Life, Critical Illness and Personal Accident, with more products to be launched going forward, the announcement said. As part of the partnership, Revolut Singapore customers will also receive a one-time complimentary insurance coverage of S$500 ($367) when they sign up for an account on the Snack app.

    Snack’s modular approach to bite-sized insurance reimagines how people obtain and consume insurance. This provides tremendous flexibility in tailoring solutions based on the needs of customers and integrating it with partners’ platforms to create a unique experience, Peter Tay, Income chief digital officer, said.

    Revolut has reached over 70,000 signups in the republic since its launch one year ago. It has expanded its footprint this year with launches in the U.S., Australia and Japan. In the coming weeks, Revolut will be introducing fast and free top-ups using bank accounts and a prepaid debit card for children aged 7-17 to teach children to better manage money digitally.

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  • Revolut, Appears to be a Normal Bank

    Revolut, Appears to be a Normal Bank

    Revolut has announced the introduction of fees for free account users. This will anger customers and is a perfect example of how to botch an opportunity.

    The noise surrounding U.K.-based digital bank Revolut has just become a fair degree louder in recent days: the company announced to its free-account customers in an email that the days of using a service free-of-charge were numbered.

    We’ve been talking with thousands of you about how we can help you get even more from your money, was the introductory statement. The remainder of the letter was devoted to how Revolut was going to make more money from serving its clients.

    And that’s why it will introduce forex fees on August 12, 2020. From that day onwards, sending money abroad will cost $1.06 for a transaction in the respective country’s currency, 4 francs for transactions in the dollar, and 6 francs in any other currency – for instance, if you wish to send pound sterling to someone in Brazil.

    Furthermore, the upper limit for free exchange orders will be lowered to 1,250 francs and the percentage charged for orders on weekends increased to 1 percent from 0.5 percent.

    That will anger a substantial percentage of the bank’s clients. A large majority of Revolut clients have used the services of the digital bank to make foreign payments precisely because costs were low and fees almost inexistent.

    So to introduce fees for a service that has been advertised as free of charge is more than just a little ironic. It smacks more of how you’d expect a normal bank to behave and not a fintech. At least if you held a similar view of banks as the founder of Revolut, who had launched his company precisely because of such actions.

    It is also poignant at what point of time the company has chosen to announce the changes. Revolut, which has been typically bullish about its performance, seems to have been forced to raise the fees because of a drop in revenues during the pandemic lockdown.

    Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky in May claimed that the bank was awash with money after a recently concluded financing round and that he considered making acquisitions. That was shortly after reports about the departure of more than a dozen of the bank’s managers and the announcement that it would cut 60 jobs.

    A further 50 jobs are on the line in Poland and Portugal, according to a report, an online magazine. And the way of disposing of the workers raises some questions: ex-employees have said that they were called into their manager’s office one morning and told to choose between resigning or being sacked.

    And the rest of the staff were said to have received one part of their salary in recent months in stock, more or less voluntarily.

    Revolut is using such methods to reach its goal of profitability by year-end. The corona-crisis looks to have hampered its efforts. Revolut seems one of the very few payment fintechs not to have profited from the stay-at-home message that boosted online shopping.

  • Revolut Singapore Strengthens Leadership Team

    Revolut Singapore Strengthens Leadership Team

    The fast-growing digital bank has added a CEO, chief compliance officer and head of growth in Singapore, where it now employs over 30 people, it announced on Tuesday.

    U.K.-based fintech Revolut has appointed James Shanahan as its Singapore chief executive officer, who brings more than 25 years’ experience with large banks, insurers and third-parties, particularly in Asia.

    Shanahan, who joined Revolut in March, was previously Railsbank’s Southeast Asia chief of staff. Prior to that, he was chief operating officer for insurer Singapore Life, and held a variety of roles at Ataca, Avaloq, Axa, ANZ, and Standard Chartered. In his new role, he will be responsible for growing Revolut’s local business and expanding into wider Asian markets, a statement said.

    His appointment follows the appointment of Martin Gilbert, the former Standard Life Aberdeen co-chief executive who sat on the MAS International Advisory Panel until early 2020, as chairman of Revolut’s board.

    Compliance Risk Specialist Joins

    Revolut also appointed Rayson Tan as chief compliance officer, chief risk officer and head of legal. He brings more than two decades’ experience in the field, and was most recently a managing director in the Compliance & Regulatory Affairs department of Credit Suisse.

    Tan has also held various country, regional and global AML and sanction roles at Deutsche Bank and UBS.

    Business Development Hire

    Pam Chuang, the former vice president of sales and partnerships at GoBear, was appointed head of growth. She was part of the pioneer team at the Singapore-based financial supermarket, and was instrumental in scaling its reach across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

    Before that, Chuang held leadership roles for companies including AIA Group, ReMark International, Saxo Bank and Aon.

    Rapid Growth

    Founded in 2015, Revolut launched in Singapore in 2019, where it operates a multi-currency wallet. 

    In February, it announced a $500 million series D raise led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm TCV, which it said will be used to improve existing products and services as well as expand its outreach outside of its U.K. base.

    Earlier this month, Revolut announced that it had officially launched a bank in Lithuania, and will use the European banking license that it received for the operations there to start awarding loans, issue credit cards and open savings accounts.

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  • Revolut’s Lessons on Blitzscaling

    Revolut’s Lessons on Blitzscaling

    The founder and CEO of neobank Revolut spoke about how he built the company from a 20 person outfit in a co-working space in 2015 to one of the fastest-growing fintechs globally.

    I sleep well, Revolut founder and CEO Nicholas Storonsky said to Mandy Lamb, Visa group country manager for Southeast Asia on Tuesday when asked about what keeps him awake at night.

    The British-Russian entrepreneur said he is comfortable with where the business is heading. Within four years, Revolut has amassed more than 8 million users and £40 billion ($49.19 billion) in transactions so far, according to its website. «Obviously, there are problems. But I believe that any problem is solvable. If you believe in your product, you will find a solution,» he said.

    Storonsky spoke about maintaining strong company culture, and how Revolut has had to transition from young and hungry pirate» to admirals, which was one of the most difficult parts of scaling at such a breakneck speed.

    Looking back, Storonsky said the most important thing he learned about growing a company is the importance of hiring the right people, and advised entrepreneurs to focus on building a strong leadership team.

    In October, the firm launched its services in Singapore, the first market outside Europe and Australia. One of the stumbling blocks Revolut faced when building the company and expanding into overseas markets was finding partners that could scale their services as quickly as it was growing, Storonsky said.

    Partnerships rarely work. It’s rare to find the perfect match, with companies that move at the same speed,» he said. «In my experience, only 5 percent of partnerships work, but when they do, it’s great.

    Earlier in the day, Storonsky spoke at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2019, where he said the firm would not pursue a digital banking license in Singapore because of the high capital requirements.

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  • Revolut raises $66 million for its global banking alternative

    Revolut raises $66 million for its global banking alternative

    Revolut has raised a $66 million Series B round with Index Ventures leading the round, and existing investors Balderton Capital and Ribbit Capital also participating. The startup will also run another $5 million crowdfunding campaign in a few weeks. The company has raised $83 million in total.

    Revolut started as a mobile app that lets you send and receive money in multiple currencies. Over time, the company has added a ton of financial services, turning it into a credible alternative to a regular bank account.

    When you sign up, you can create virtual cards and receive a good old plastic MasterCard. You can top up your account using another card or a bank transfer. You can exchange your money in 16 different currencies in order to send it or spend it without any fee up to £5,000/€5,000 per month.

    700,000 people have signed up so far. That’s why users are also using Revolut to split bills and instantly send money. When you create an account, you now also get an IBAN.

    More recently, Revolut introduced a credit feature for U.K. users and business accounts. The startup even plans to add cryptocurrencies, stocks and bonds soon. You’ll also be able to purchase travel insurance from the app. With today’s funding round, the company also plans to expand to new countries in Asia and North America.

    It’s sometimes hard to understand where Revolut is heading as the company is launching so many different products and currencies at once. It looks like the company doesn’t want to restrict itself. As long as it’s a financial or insurance product, Revolut wants to have it. And with so much more money in the bank account, the startup is definitely not going to stop just yet.