Revolut Secures French Banking License to Supercharge European Expansion

Revolut Bank S.A. has received a French full banking license and plans to begin expanding across Europe.

The company received the license after a joint assessment by the French prudential regulator, the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), and the European Central Bank (ECB), with the decision formally adopted by the ECB Governing Council, Revolut said in a Monday (Aug. 10) press release.

Revolut already serves about 30 million customers across Western Europe and more than 75 million globally, according to the release.

The French banking license strengthens Revolut’s position as one of Europe’s largest retail banks, and Revolut Bank S.A. will operate alongside Revolut’s Lithuanian entity, Revolut Bank UAB, with both entities supervised by the ECB, the release said.

Revolut Bank S.A. will expand across several European countries in phases, starting with France, followed by Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Revolut Bank UAB will serve the rest of the European Economic Area (EEA), per the release.

Revolut’s dual-hub model, with licensed entities in France and Lithuania, will support the company’s scale across the continent, will enable the company to accelerate the localization of its products and will help it deepen its banking relationships through closer proximity to customers, talent and local ecosystems, according to the release.

“This license gives us the foundation to build the next generation of banking for more than 30 million customers across Western Europe,” Revolut Founder and CEO Nik Storonsky said in the release.

Revolut also aims to become “a truly global banking champion,” the company said in the release.

Revolut announced in July that it secured a banking license from Australia’s financial regulator and received in-principle approval to provide crypto services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The banking license from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) marks Revolut’s official entry into the Asia-Pacific banking space. It also makes Revolut the first global FinTech granted a full Australian deposit-taking institution (ADI) license from the APRA, the company said.

The in-principle approval to provide crypto services in the UAE will, subject to final approvals, let Revolut offer broker-dealer, management and investment, and exchange services in the UAE through its retail app and its standalone exchange, RevolutX.