Revolut Australia country head Matt Baxby
The Australian arm of global fintech Revolut might be looking for a new local boss before the end of the year amid intense speculation that country head Matt Baxby has been short-listed to join the senior management team in London.
Sources close to the company in Melbourne told Banking Day that Baxby has been interviewed to fill a senior group-level vacancy created by the departure of high profile executive, Richard Davies.
Davies, who was chief executive of Revolut’s banking division, departed Revolut in late July to take the helm of UK business lender, Allica Bank.
His departure was the latest in a stream of resignations at the London head office this year. Revolut also lost its chief financial officer David McLean in March and its head of wealth and trading, Andre Mohamed, two months later.
If Baxby secures the London posting he will be responsible for expediting the development of Revolut’s global banking platform.
The company secured its first banking licence in 2018 after it won approval from Lithuania’s prudential regulator.
The plan is to secure banking licences in other jurisdictions including the United States, Australia and across Asia.
Revolut is looking to accelerate its push into retail banking to help de-risk the business from a reliance on its highly competitive currency conversion service offered through prepaid Visa cards.
The company’s international growth has been undermined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has depressed demand for the flagship currency conversion service.
Before he took the executive reins of the Australian operation in February this year, Baxby spent seven years as a senior executive at the Bank of Queensland.
He was BoQ’s group head of retail banking for six years until 2018 and then took over as chief financial officer.
Baxby, a lawyer by training, established a profile in the local financial services sector as chief executive of Virgin Money Australia.
He was only 33 when he was appointed to the top post at VMA in 2009.