Revolut has made two big-name hires as Britain’s biggest fintech expands its board after receiving a UK banking licence.

Banking veterans Sir Peter Estlin and Fiona Fry will be joining the board of Revolut UK with effect today.

Fiona Fry, a qualified chartered accountant, has a career spanning more than 40 years in professional services, including as a partner at KPMG, where she focused on governance and culture, and two years on the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Services Consumer Panel.

Sir Peter Estlin, who served as Lord Mayor of the City of London in 2018, qualified as a chartered accountant in 1985 and became a Partner at Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in 1993. He has held positions at Salomon Brothers, which became part of Citigroup, before moving to Barclays as Group Financial Controller and later CFO of the Corporate and Retail Bank, as well as Acting Group CFO.

The move is the latest by Revolut as it strengthens its operations amid a transition to becoming a fully-licenced bank. That has included tightening fraud controls and giving itself greater leeway to shut down customer accounts in a series of terms of service updates. The company has also significantly bulked out its compliance and risk functions with dozens of new hires.

Richard Holmes, Chairman of Revolut UK, said: “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.” 

Revolut, which is worth $45bn according to the implied corporate valuation in a recent share sale, is also eyeing a possible IPO that could take place as soon as next year. But so far, co-founder Nik Storonsky has poured cold water on the prospects of the business listing in London, describing the move as irrational.

Last month, Revolut celebrated the major milestone of signing up its 50 millionth customer by hosting a two-day event in central London featuring popstar Charli XCX.

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