Revolut in the UK is Europe’s largest fintech company. The tracking tool they use to monitor employee behaviour influences bonus payout decisions.
In the company’s latest annual report, point are awarded or docked based on Karma, a system introduced to monitor how employees meet risk and compliance regulations.
In its annual report, the company said it had developed a “healthy culture of risk and compliance” due to its use of points-based systems that determined payouts for employees.
Pierre Decote wrote in his report that “our industry-leading proprietary Karma scheme is essential for measuring good risk and regulatory outcomes and it was expanded to cover our growing complexity in 2024.”
In the report, it was stated that: “With over 30 risk and regulatory compliance processes covered, Karma is both a feedback system for rewarding and correcting behaviours as well as an engine to oversee risk and regulatory compliance culture, which allows us prioritise important developments in this area.”
The statement continued: “Clear roles and responsibilities are defined, both operationally as well as organisationally. There are also mechanisms that encourage good business practices, such as Karma.
Revolut’s spokesperson told The Guardian that “our proprietary Karma system is designed to drive positive risk and compliance action at Revolut.” This scheme is a market leader that was launched in 2020. It measures and rewards good risk practices.
Karma, they said, had proven the effectiveness of linking these tools with remuneration. “Ultimately, this has built a strong culture for risk management and compliance throughout the business.”
Revolut, founded by British-Russian Nikolay Storonsky in July 2015 and British-Ukrainian Vlad Yatsenko as a software engineer, has been praised by government figures including former chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
In its early days, the bank faced accusations of cultivating a toxic workplace culture. Wired, the tech magazine, published an article in March 2019 about Revolut. It cited evidence of unpaid labor, high staff turnover, and employees who felt they had to work weekends in order to meet performance targets. Wired then published an account in which it described how employees at Revolut were forced to accept terminations during the Covid pandemic, despite the fact that the employer did not have the legal authority to do so.
Storonsky acknowledged that there were cultural issues and wrote in a 2019 blog post that the company made mistakes. He wrote that “we’ve introduced new, 360-degree performance reviews in order to make them fairer and more transparent.” We have completely redesigned our onboarding and deboarding processes to improve employee satisfaction.
He said: “Our working culture is evolving at the same pace as our business. We have come a very long way since we started.” “I’m not proud of some of the mistakes we made in the past, but I’m proud of the lessons we learned and the direction we are now headed.”
Former employees have been airing their grievances in forums like Glassdoor since then.
The company now employs more than 10,000 people. The bank did not receive a UK banking license until July 2024 after applying in 2021. This was due to the concerns of financial authorities regarding the bank’s efforts to combat fraud, money laundering, and comply with EU regulations.
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