HSBC hired the man behind Revolut's agentic AI platform
Fintechs like Revolut have built up a reputation for being able to grow their tech and AI capabilities much faster than their legacy counterparts. Revolut itself has built various AI products, including a financial literacy chatbot and its own foundation model. Having seen this, HSBC seems to have taken up a stance of: 'if you can't beat them, hire them.'
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The British bank hired Val Riabtsev this month as a managing director and head of AI and data capabilities within its wealth and premier banking division. He spent the last two and a half years at Revolut, latterly serving as its head of platforms for agents and automation. Before joining Revolut, he co-founded a startup, Wale.ai, which built an agent designed to help VCs and private equity professionals assess the value of a company.
At HSBC, Riabtsev will be building AI agents for the bank's wealth business. He arrives amid a period of massive AI-induced change; CEO Georges Elhedery announced plans to cut 20,000 jobs at HSBC, roughly 10% of global headcount, over the next three to five years. Riabtsev's work may directly impact how these cuts roll out within the wealth division.
HSBC isn't the only bank hiring from fintechs in London. JPMorgan hired Justin Geaney within its international consumer bank as an MD and a chief product officer. Rather than AI agents, he'll be working on cloud-native banking infrastructure. He most recently worked remotely in Berlin as the head of product for payments fintech Deel, but he was also previously chief product officer of Mox Bank, the Hong Kong digibank offering from Standard Chartered.
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