Tory conference: ‘Rigorous’ process for Revolut licence was ‘right’, ex-minister says

The “rigorous” process Revolut went through to secure its banking licence was “right”, John Glen has said.

Former paymaster general Glen told a Conservatives in the City event at the annual Tory party conference in Birmingham that the digital payments app now had “credibility to grow globally”.

He said: “The UK is brilliant in innovation in financial services. 

“If you look at when I saw the CEO of Revolut, I said, ‘what can I do?’. He says, ‘get me my banking licence’. 

“Well, they got their banking licence after several years. It’s right that it was a rigorous process to get licensed, because now they’ve got the credibility to grow globally out of London, and we cannot compete on a sort of quick and dirty regulation.”

The fintech firm received its licence in July after a three-year wait for authorisation from the banking watchdog, meaning it will be allowed to offer products like mortgages and credit cards alongside its existing e-money services.

Glen’s comments come as Revolut this week announced it is launching a standalone app based on its wealth management offering as it looks to move into the retail investor market.

Revolut Invest app will offer more than 4,000 financial instruments, including European and US stocks, bonds, commodities and exchange-traded funds, the London-based firm said.

Glen also argued at the panel event that while “we’ve got to have robustness, but we’ve also got to hold our financial services regulators to account for the complexity of their decisions”. 

He said: “We might hear that Singapore and other jurisdictions provide a great model for us. 

“Well, in some elements they will do, but it’s unrealistic for us in London – and we have retained a massive degree of authority, despite the challenges…

“We’ve retained a lot of our authorities. We’re not going to become more authoritative by deregulating further.”