Joe Heneghan. Image: Shane O'Neill, SON Photographic.
Former Ulster Bank chief administrative officer Joe Heneghan has been appointed to the helm of challenger bank Revolut’s Irish operation.
Revolut Ireland has appointed former Ulster Bank chief administrative officer Joe Heneghan as its CEO. Heneghan will be responsible for defining and implementing the Irish business strategy, including maintaining and expanding Revolut’s offering.
As the challenger bank continues to progress its application for relevant Irish regulatory licences, Heneghan will also serve as the in-jurisdiction point of contact for the regulator and relevant stakeholders.
Prior to joining Revolut, Heneghan spent 14 years at Ulster Bank in various senior roles such as head of risk management, director of customer experience and products and, most recently, chief administrative officer. He has also served as head of product management at First Active and was a marketing manager at Permanent TSB bank.
Revolut also announced a CEO appointment for its Lithuanian operation. Virgilijus Mirkės, previously the CEO of SEB Bankas, a commercial bank in Lithuania, will oversee Revolut’s overall operations in the country as well as defining and implementing the European strategy for the company’s regulated entities.
Expansion plans
Revolut previously said that it is going to place a “strategic focus” on Ireland going forward, saying that it is interested in founding a payments and technology hub in the country to further support its European operations.
The news that the fintech firm is focusing its energies in Ireland followed the revelation that it had dropped its licence application in Luxembourg. News outlets in Luxembourg speculated that pointed comments made in the country’s parliament about financial institutions were implicitly directed at Revolut.
“Some of them get their approval even though they do not meet financial and banking regulatory requirements,” MP Laurent Mosar stated in Luxembourg’s Chamber of Deputies. Revolut has roundly denied that these comments were in any way related to the decision to halt the application process.
Elsewhere, the firm announced earlier this month that it intends to open a new operations centre in Portugal, creating 330 jobs.
