The UK banking licence will enable Revolut to offer protected deposits and lending services for customers. The app was granted a European banking licence by the Bank of Lithuania in 2018, but in the UK has operated as an FCA authorised e-money institution.
The UK banking licence will allow Revolut to provide full service current accounts with essential products such as overdrafts, loans and deposit accounts. Approval by the Bank of England and Prudenital Regulatory Authority would also provide customers with the added securitity of dissolution compensation under The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
The application to the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority is intended to make it easier to convince customers to deposit their salaries in Revolut accounts.
A Revolut survey found that 50% would be willing to do so if their money were covered by a deposit guarantee scheme. Revolut currently has an e-money licence and holds customers’ funds in big banks, but a banking licence would provide every customer in the UK with £85,000 of cover from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Former Standard Chartered European CEO, Richard Holmes joined Revolut in October 2020 as an advisor to the board with a brief to develop Revolut’s bank proposition. His responsibilities include developing the board and leadership team for the new entity.
Nik Storonsky, founder and CEO at Revolut, says: “We want to be the best in class for customer experience, value and capabilities, and offering full bank accounts allows us to do just that. In the future, we want to offer many more innovative products to our UK customers and we are excited to continue driving innovation and competition in the banking industry. Becoming a fully licenced bank in the UK is a central pillar of that ambition.”
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The challenger bank was granted an EU banking licence in Lithuania in December 2018 and has begun rolling out banking services in central Europe.
The company recently introduced a credit offer in two European markets and plans to roll out banking operations across additional European markets in 2021.
Revolut has had more than 13 million customers since its launch in 2015 and employs over 2,000 people worldwide, with around 800 based in London.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
