Revolut adds ex-Lord Mayor and KPMG veteran to UK board ahead of bank launch

Revolut has appointed a former Lord Mayor of London and Big Four veteran to its UK board as the fintech giant prepares to launch as a fully-fledged bank in its home market.

The London-based banking company added Fiona Fry and Peter Estlin as non-executive directors while it works through the mobilisation period for its UK bank, after winning a provisional banking licence from regulators in July.

Having spent more than 40 years working in professional services, Fry was a partner at accounting giant KPMG for over two decades, where she specialised in governance and culture in retail banking.

She left KPMG in 2021 and has been a board adviser to Revolut’s holding company since last November. Her other boardroom posts include directorships at insurer Aviva and stockbroker AJ Bell.

Revolut also touted Fry’s two-year stint on the Financial Conduct Authority’s financial services consumer panel.

Estlin served as Lord Mayor of the City of London from 2018 to 2019. He currently holds positions as chair of Vanquis Banking Group, the lender formerly known as Provident Financial, and a director at Rothschild & Co.

Over the last three decades, he has held senior posts at US investment bank Salomon Brothers, now part of Citigroup, and Barclays – including a brief period as its acting chief financial officer in 2013.

“Building a Board of experienced financial services talent to serve as independent non-executive directors is an important step as we seek a full banking licence to better serve the growing UK customer base,” said Richard Holmes, Revolut UK’s chair.

Revolut, founded in 2015, spent more than three years waiting for a UK banking licence amid criticism of its corporate culture, audit issues and the delayed filing of its accounts.

Full authorisation would allow Revolut to offer lending products like credit cards and mortgages to its more than 10m British users and step up its challenge to the country’s biggest retail banks.

Founded as a digital payments and money transfer provider in the UK, Revolut has amassed more than 50m global users and now provides everything from accounts and business banking to trading and an eSIM plan.

The firm cemented its status as Europe’s most valuable fintech start-up after securing a $45bn valuation in an August employee share sale. The price tag also makes it Britain’s second most valuable bank, behind HSBC.

Revolut is also looking ahead to the possibility of a public listing, leaning towards an IPO in the US rather than the London Stock Exchange.