Revolut loses its head of regulatory compliance, hires two former Amazon execs

More personnel changes at Revolut are in motion, as a key member of the leadership team leaves for Barclays, and two former Amazon staffers join the London-headquartered neobank, including a new chief operating officer.

TechCrunch understands that Chris Sing, Revolut’s head of regulatory compliance is leaving to take up the position as Barclays’s new chief of staff to the group chief compliance officer. He joined Revolut in December 2018 and has spent a little under two years at the multi-unicorn fintech.

In a gamekeeper-turned-poacher styled career move, prior to Revolut, Sing was a manager at U.K. regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). During his long stint at the FCA, he also did a secondment at incumbent bank Santander.

Revolut have confirmed Sing’s departure, whose direct responsibilities are being taken on by group head of compliance assurance, Harinder Gill, until a replacement is recruited.

Noteworthy, though not surprising given that Revolut is no longer an early-stage startup, Sing adds to a number of senior staff that have departed in recent months. Most high profile is Richard Davies, CEO Bankng, who left to join Allica Bank as CEO. Another is Andre Muhammad, head of trading — destination unknown (although we can be sure it isn’t Freetrade).

Meanwhile, Revolut is on the verge of announcing two senior hires from Amazon, TechCrunch has learned. They are Steven Harman, who joins as the neobank’s new group COO; and Jim McDougall, who becomes Revolut’s new chief people officer. Harman was most recently Amazon’s VP of continental europe customer fulfillment, and McDougall held the position of director or HR services transformation.

The key operational hires and departure of Revolut’s head of regulatory compliance come at an interesting time for the neobank. The company raised a $580 million Series D at a $5.5 billion valuation in the spring. It also made some cost cutting measures, including a plethora of layoffs in a bid to shore up finances amid the current economic downturn/coronavirus crisis.