Revolut is one of the hottest fintechs and the bugbear of banks with its unbeatable terms. However, fissures are emerging in the start-up's success story. 

«Europe’s fastest-growing unicorn has quite the reputation», U.S. business magazine «Forbes» wrote admiringly last year of the British smartphone bank. Founder and CEO Nikolay Storonsky vaulted Revolut past the $1 billion «unicorn» mark in a matter of months through «just working super-hard», according to the former Credit Suisse banker. 

In Asia, Revolut intends to launch its services in the first quarter of 2019. The company has already been granted the necessary licenses in Singapore and Japan, as finews.asia reported earlier. And its Asia-Pacific headquarters «will most likely» be based in Singapore, with a number of key personnel responsible for business development, public relations and compliance already hired in the region, Revolut announced a few months ago.

Now in its «final stages of testing», the company, co-founded by Vlad Yatsenko and Storonsky, said that anticipation for Revolut’s launch in Asia-Pacific has been growing, with nearly 100,000 customers on the waiting list.

Corporate Complaints

Start-up successes are all the more fascinating when they attack incumbents head-on, but examples like Theranos – the collapsed blood testing firm now under investigation in the U.S. – and Uber – where founder and CEO Travis Kalanick oversaw a culture of bro-ism.

At Revolut, signs are mounting that the start-up will pursue its success story with little consideration for best business practices – or even bend the rules to its own advantage. Users have griped about frequent changes to Revolut's terms ever since the app launched, as well as broken promises.

Dispersing Complaints

A corporate client is dispersing his complaints about seemingly arbitrary changes to fees and mistaken foreign exchange rates in real-time with the help of social media.

Britain's «Telegraph» (behind paywall) reported that Revolut has disabled an internal monitoring system designed to track illegal money transfers. The move has reportedly drawn the attention of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority.

Threats and Brusque Tone

Renowned tech publication «Wired» reported that Storonsky's work ethic applies primarily to what Revolut expects from employees: the CEO reportedly threatened staff with dismissal if they missed their targets by a wide margin, without negotiation.  

Of seven new country heads hired last year, six have reportedly already left Revolut. The publication evaluated 147 other new hires – and found that half had left Revolut after less than a year. «Wired» referenced a brusque manner among the inner circle of executives around CEO Storonsky along the lines of, «if you don't like it, leave». 

Unconventional Methods

Last year, the neo bank raised eyebrows for its unconventional methods for recruiting staff: it appeared to be asking job applicants to demonstrate they can acquire 200 new clients for the start-up before they can proceed to the next hiring round, Spanish outlet «Eldiario» reported.