The London-founded company no longer wants to be known as a fintech that helps customers save on foreign exchange fees or spend abroad with a digital card, rather it positions itself to be at par with other fully-fledged global banks.
Revolut has spent the past decade building one of the world’s largest digital finance platforms, attracting millions of users with low-cost foreign exchange, international payments and a sleek mobile experience. But its latest expansion signals a different ambition: becoming a full-service bank that takes deposits, extends credit and competes across core banking products.
Revolut has secured three new banking licences this year, in the UK, France and Australia, expanding the fintech’s ability to offer savings, current accounts and lending in major markets. The licences matter because they allow the company to operate regulated banking entities rather than rely solely on electronic money licences or partner banks. Yet in essence, this is just the starting point.
From payments platform to deposit-funded institution
When Revolut launched in 2015, it differentiated itself through multi-currency accounts, inexpensive foreign exchange and international spending. Like many early neobanks, much of its revenue came from interchange fees, subscriptions and payment activity rather than traditional lending.
Today, the business looks much broader. According to Revolut, it serves more than 75 million customers across over 40 markets and offers savings accounts, credit cards, personal loans, investments, crypto trading, business banking and merchant payments.
The more significant change, however, is the growth of customer deposits held within Revolut’s own banking entities. Deposits provide a cheaper source of funding than relying entirely on external capital or payment revenues, creating the foundation for a lending business. The fintech reportedly reached GPB30 billion in total deposits in 2024, a 66% increase on the previous year. That shifts Revolut closer to the traditional banking model, where deposits fund loans and interest income becomes a larger contributor to profitability.
Banking licences create opportunities, and obligations
Revolut’s regulatory expansion has evidently accelerated over the past year. Its UK banking licence became fully operational after regulators lifted final restrictions in 2026, allowing eligible deposits to be protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and enabling a wider range of banking products. France has since become the company’s Western European banking hub, while Australia represents its latest licensed market.
These approvals expand what Revolut can legally offer, but they also bring greater supervisory oversight, capital requirements and compliance obligations. Unlike payments businesses, banks must hold capital against lending risk, manage liquidity and satisfy regulators that they can withstand economic stress. As Revolut grows its balance sheet, profitability will depend not only on customer growth but also on how effectively it manages credit losses, funding costs and regulatory expectations.
That said, the clearest sign of Revolut’s banking ambitions is its growing focus on lending.
The company already offers personal loans, credit cards, overdrafts and Buy Now Pay Later products in several European markets. Mortgages are now being considered as the next step, with Australia emerging as an early test market. Revolut CEO Matt Baxby said the company is looking at entering Australia’s highly competitive mortgage sector, where the Big Four banks — Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, NAB and ANZ — control more than 70% of the market. Revolut entered Australia more formally in July after receiving an unrestricted banking licence from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), giving it the ability to expand beyond payments and foreign exchange into deposits and credit. The company already has more than 1 million Australian customers and has committed nearly AUD400 million to its local operations over the next five years.
This is a more consequential step than expanding payments or savings accounts. Payments businesses typically earn fees without taking significant balance-sheet risk. Mortgage and consumer lending introduce long-term credit exposure, require underwriting expertise and tie up regulatory capital for years. Success depends on accurately assessing borrowers, managing defaults and maintaining funding through economic cycles.
For Revolut, a move into mortgages would therefore test whether its technology-led model can translate into one of the most capital-intensive and tightly regulated areas of retail banking — and whether its existing customer base can be converted into deeper, longer-term banking relationships.
The road ahead
Revolut has demonstrated how digital-first institutions can expand beyond payments into broader banking services while operating across multiple markets through technology-led infrastructure. However as it expands regulated banking operations across Europe and other international markets, it must prove it can scale lending responsibly while maintaining profitability under increasing regulatory scrutiny.
The next phase of digital banking may be less about who builds the best payments app and more about who can combine technology with the discipline of managing a bank balance sheet. Revolut has crossed the threshold into banking, but can it convert customer scale into lasting primary banking relationships while managing the risks that come with being a bank?
