Revolut’s Storonsky switches residency from UK to UAE

Storonsky was born in Russia but he listed his residence as England, where he was a British citizen, until last October. Now, filings at Companies House show this has changed to the UAE, although his citizen status is not provided.

Storonsky co-founded Revolut in 2015, building it into a fintech behemoth with 65 million users and a $75 billion valuation at its most recent fundraising round. Storonsky is the company’s largest shareholder, with a stake worth around $8 billion, according to Forbes.

Despite its leader’s move, Revolut recently pledged to invest £3 billion in the UK, creating 1000 new high-skilled jobs over the next five years.

However, the company has not always had a smooth relationship with its home market. Last year, it finally secured a UK banking license after a three year wait but it is still stuck in a “mobilisation” period.

Earlier this year, the Financial Times reported that UK chancellor Rachel Reeves had clashed with Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey over efforts to accelerate Revolut’s authorisation as a fully-licenced bank, with Reeves eager to see the fintech get the greenlight as soon as possible.

Storonsky is not the first fintech billionaire to leave the UK this year: Checkout.com boss Guillaume Pousaz switched his country of residence from the UK to tax haven Monaco.

Other super-rich residents have also left in the wake of changes to the UK’s non-dom regime and increased taxes on capital gains, which were introduced by Reeves as part of last year’s Budget.