SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - UK-based payments fintech firm Revolut has appointed Mr James Shanahan - previously the chief operating officer (COO) of insurtech company Singapore Life - as its Singapore chief executive officer to lead the growth of its Asia business.
The firm has also hired former Credit Suisse managing director Rayson Tan as its new chief compliance officer, chief risk officer and head of legal in Singapore. Ms Pam Chuang, previously the vice-president of sales and partnerships at fintech firm GoBear, has also joined Revolut as its new head of growth.
These recent hires come as Revolut aims to bring its full suite of products to Singapore, Japan and Australia by the year's end.
"Our ambition is to achieve product parity in (these countries) by the end of the year. We're accelerating our product launches in this part of the world and have dramatically ramped up discussions with our product teams in Europe and the UK," Mr Shanahan told The Business Times in an interview.
Mr Shanahan joined Revolut in March 2020. Priorthis, he was the chief of staff at Railsbank Technologies in South-east Asia and COO at Singlife. He has more than 25 years of experience with banks, insurers and third parties predominantly in Asia, including ANZ Bank, Avaloq, Standard Chartered, AXA Insurance and Accenture. He has led new business launches, mergers and acquisitions, strategy, technology and operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia, said Revolut in a statement.
On the compliance front, Mr Tan brings over 20 years of financial services experience to Revolut. He was previously the managing director in the compliance and regulatory affairs department at Credit Suisse, and has extensive experience in building and leading compliance programmes in financial services across investment banking, private banking, corporate banking, as well as asset management.
Mr Tan has also held various country, regional and global AML (anti-money laundering) and sanction roles at Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank.
"Compliance risk has become one of the most significant concerns for financial institutions globally. I am a firm believer that in further developing the strength of the firm's compliance programme, we can ensure compliance at Revolut is a distinct competitive advantage for the company," he said.
With almost two decades of experience in financial institutions across Asia, Ms Chuang was involved in scaling GoBear across South-east Asia and Hong Kong before taking up her new role as head of growth at Revolut. She has also held leadership roles in several companies, including AIA Group, ReMark International, Saxo Bank and Aon.
Globally, Revolut has amassed more than 12 million customers and raised more than US$800 million (S$1.13 billion) in funding at a US$5.5 billion valuation. In Singapore, the firm has about 65,000 users and over 30 staff since its launch in October 2019.
