Image: © mino21/Stock.adobe.com
The Central Bank of Lithuania said that London-based Revolut also failed to follow rules around the handling of customer complaints.
Revolut was fined €70,000 at the end of last year for failing to submit audited annual financial statements to the Bank of Lithuania in due time, in violation of Lithuanian laws on financial institutions.
The regulator wrote in a public statement that one of Revolut’s European subsidiaries, Revolut Payments UAB, had “failed to approve the annual financial statements and make a decision on the distribution of profit (loss) within the set deadlines”.
The digital challenger bank, which is headquartered in London, has its license granted in Lithuania. While the company has grown rapidly over the past few years, it has also come under increasing regulatory scrutiny.
Separately, Revolut is also yet to file audited accounts for two holding companies in the UK, according to the Business Post.
Rūta Medaiskytė of the Bank of Lithuania (BoL) told the publication that while Revolut companies established in Lithuania have provided audited reports for 2021 and 2022, the fine has been imposed due to “failure to provide these reports within the legal deadline”.
A spokesperson for Revolut told SiliconRepublic.com: “We regret the late filing; the timings of our filings in Europe were impacted by technical reasons which were remedied so that the situation does not happen again.”
The Bank of Lithuania also revealed late last year that Revolut Payments failed to follow rules around the handling of customer complaints including cases of “incomplete, unsubstantiated answers and non-respect of the deadlines”.
The digital bank has been issued a warning in this regard. “The Bank of Lithuania obliged [Revolut Bank UAB] to ensure that all customer complaints received through the chat box in the bank’s app are registered, processed and responded to as required by law, and that customers are duly informed,” the regulator said.
“We have already addressed the issues of customer complaints handling highlighted by the BoL and will also take into account their suggestions for further improvement,” the Revolut spokesperson informed SiliconRepublic.com.
The spokesperson continued: “We have reduced the average queuing time in customer support chat to less than two minutes and [in 2021] we received fewer complaints compared to 2020”.
Despite its popularity in Ireland, a Peopl Insurance survey in August 2022 found that 35pc of adults surveyed have low levels of trust in fintech providers such as Revolut, N26 and Bunq.
By comparison, 27pc of respondents said they have a low level of trust in traditional banking institutions. Only 18pc of people said they have a high level of trust in fintechs, with the same result for traditional banks.
Updated, 4.16pm, 9 January 2023: This article has been updated to include a statement from Revolut.
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
