Revolut has received a UK banking licence — three years after applying.
Today, the London-based fintech announced that the UK regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), has finally granted it one.
Revolut will now enter a 'mobilisation' phase, in which it will work on building the operations required of it as a bank and be somewhat restricted in what it can do; for example, only holding £50k in customer deposits.
While it’s held a European banking licence through its Lithuania base since 2021, the lack of a UK bank licence has long been a thorn in the side of the fintech, which is one of Europe's most valuable tech companies (last achieving a valuation of $33bn in 2021).
“We are incredibly proud to reach this important milestone in the journey of the company and we will ensure we deliver on making Revolut the bank of choice for UK customers," said Nik Storonsky, CEO of Revolut.
A good year for Revolut
It's shaping up to be a good year for Revolut. Earlier this month, it posted record profits in its 2023 company accounts, making a pre-tax profit of £438m, up from losses of £25m the year before. Revenues nearly doubled to £1.8bn, from £923m in 2022. It also added 12m new customers last year, taking its total to more than 45m.
The regulatory ruling comes amid reports it's in talks to sell about $500m of employee-owned shares in a deal that could push the fintech's valuation to $40bn. The fintech last raised a primary funding round of $800m in 2021 from investors including Tiger Global and SoftBank — to date it's raised more than $1.7bn.
Revolut launched in London in 2015, with a mission to revolutionise how people moved money around the world. It attracted consumers in the early days by offering them an easy way to spend and transfer money in multiple currencies, without paying fees or getting stung by marked-up exchange rates. It quickly launched more and more services, like business banking, kids' bank accounts, travel insurance, savings, stock trading and reward points. It's also set to move to a 113k sq ft office in the UK capital's financial district Canary Wharf in May next year.
