Assuming this blog is accurate - Yeah this is bad. I am actually amazed it's that bad. Surely it's not meant to be this bad?
How on earth do they have a UK banking license?
I wasn't aware of this before, but just searching for "revolut FCA" turned up this article from last year about a whistleblower investigation by the FCA in 2016 into seemingly intentional looking-the-other-way for some clients by the CEO[1]
Strange. The KYC parts of this tale are the mirror opposite to what I've experienced.
Over the past half dozen years or more I've opened probably 4 or more bank accounts with UK 'high street' banks [a couple for personal use, a couple for business or saving]. I've never had to visit a branch with ID. It's all been done online in a few minutes. I've always assumed that this is because the banks have access to things like the electoral register or local government records to check that I am who I say I am and that I live where I say I do.
The story with the new 'challenger banks' has been very different. I couldn't even open an account with the first few I tried [I think Monzo, Bunq and Starling] because they basically wanted me to send them; ID documents, passport, proof of address, selfie video, etc.
Yes! I'm really going to send an "Identity Theft Kit in a Box" to some unregulated hipster company I don't know from Adam.
I eventually opened an account with Revolut because, at the time, they didn't ask for all this crap up front. But the account was severely limited in amounts I could deposit or withdraw, unless I uploaded a copy of ID/Passport and linked it to my high street bank account.
I did eventually gave in and sent Revolut a copy of my passport although I never kept more than a couple of hundred £££s in the account, as their support forums are full of horror stories of people being left stranded on holiday abroad, or facing eviction because Revolut suddenly and without warning froze their accounts.
The final straw came when my passport expired and Revolut started emailing me a couple of times a week to tell me I needed to upload a new passport in order to continue to use the account --you know that old classic whereby you magically stop being who you were on the Monday, because your government issued ID expires on the Tuesday?
At that point I gave up on Revolut [I'd given up on the other challenger banks at the "Identity Theft Kit in a Box" stage] and closed the account.
I'll stick to my boring 'high street' bank from now on. They may not talk to me in emojis and twee cartoons but at least my money's safe, my account's unlikely to suddenly be locked for no reason and I don't have to give them all my personal data, for the privilege of then giving them my money too.
It's quite concerning you can open a Revolute account without ID. When I opened a Monzo account it required a pic of my driving license (despite having already recommendation from existing clients and passing the E-Check process with Address\Name\DoB etc).
How on earth do they have a UK banking license?
I wasn't aware of this before, but just searching for "revolut FCA" turned up this article from last year about a whistleblower investigation by the FCA in 2016 into seemingly intentional looking-the-other-way for some clients by the CEO[1]
[1]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47751945