Revolut fraud response comes under Panorama spotlight

Revolut has come under the spotlight over its response to customers being defrauded, following a BBC Panorama investigation which aired yesterday.

Panorama interviewed a man named Jack who had £165,000 stolen from his Revolut business account, in which he held multiple different currencies.

Jack was tricked into authorising payments to scammers impersonating the company. After realising his error, he said it took him 23 minutes to reach the department of Revolut which could freeze his account, during which a further £67,000 was stolen.

Jack alleged the company was at fault for failing to prevent the theft, for which the firm has so far refused to refund him.

Panorama also spoke to former Revolut employees about the firm’s work culture.

“Protecting Revolut from being used for financial crime always played second fiddle to the desire to launch new products and to get existing customers to use products more,” an insider told the broadcaster.

Revolut told the BBC that every potential case of fraud is carefully investigated before a decision is made. The firm has claimed it prevented more than £475 million worth of potential fraud losses to its customers around the world last year..

Panorama also highlighted that in 2023 the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received around 3,500 complaints about Revolut, more than any other bank or e-money firm in the UK.

In addition, almost 10,000 reports of fraud in which Revolut was named were submitted to cyber-crime Action Fraud, according to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

Earlier this month Revolut accused social media giant Meta of being by far the most significant source of fraud across its business.

How safe is Revolut?

The latest Good Money Guide review of Revolut found it was a “good entry-level account for most investors”. It noted, however, that it is far from the safest platform out there, especially for those seeking to transfer large amounts of foreign currency.

“New banks and fintech are much higher risk places to out your money than traditional highstreet banks,” we noted.

The main reason for this is that such firms generally run at a loss in an effort to grow quickly and secure more customers. They also offer little or sporadic visibility over how they are performing. As they are not publicly listed, they are not legally obliged to make public updates on a regular basis.

“As with all currency conversions, if you are sending over £10,000 abroad, you should be using a currency broker,” we noted.

“You’ll get much better rates, more control over when you buy and sell, help with all the AML (anti-money laundering) issues that may come up, and the ability to lock in the currency exchange rate for up to a year in advance (if you think it will move against you).”

Robin Amos

Robin has more than six years of experience as a financial journalist, most of which were spent at Citywire, and covers the latest developments in the investing, trading and currency transfer space. Outside of work, he enjoys reading literature and philosophy and playing the piano.

You can contact Robin at robin@goodmoneyguide.com