Revolut is now a bank. Raise a glass to this stellar British success story
It has been a painfully long wait for Revolut. But at last, the patience of Europe’s most valuable fintech has paid off. Its British banking licence has arrived.
This is the final step in Revolut’s decade-long journey to become a fully-fledged bank. That means it is no longer – by any yardstick – a startup.
The opportunities now open to it are immense. The UK mortgage market is worth close to £2 trillion – and with its 13m UK customers, Revolut is poised to claw a major stake, alongside the various other lending products it is now entitled to offer. If they weren’t already nervous, London’s top bank bosses must be quaking in their boots.
But with great power comes great responsibility. Revolut is about to see a ramping up in the level of regulatory attention it faces. Any misstep will get them more than just a slap on the wrist. The Canary Wharf-based business has had its share of mishaps over the years: auditor concerns over IT systems, corporate culture clashes, scrutiny over levels of fraud and questions over where in the world co-founder Nik Storonsky is actually based.
Revolut’s communications staff never miss an opportunity to tell journalists they are upset with the way the fintech is covered. But now it is the FCA and the PRA, rather than pesky hacks, that they must reckon with.
Over the past couple of years, banking rivals Starling, Monzo, Metro Bank, TSB, Barclays and others have each been slapped with eight-figure fines for various breaches, failures and misdeeds. Watchdogs will pounce on Revolut the moment they sniff an opportunity.
Revolut could join world’s biggest institutions
But keep the regulators at bay and there is no ceiling on Revolut’s ambitions. The firm’s valuation is already on a par with some of Europe’s biggest, centuries-old banks, and I don’t think it is hyperbolic to say that Revolut could soon rank among the biggest financial institutions in the world.
How fortunate we are that all this is taking place in London. There has been no greater ambassador for the capital’s burgeoning fintech scene than Revolut. The stereotype that you can’t rapidly scale a tech firm in Europe? Revolut has smashed through it, with its 70m customers and thousands of staff. It sends a signal to the rest of the world: come to London and you can do the same.
To her credit, Chancellor Rachel Reeves clearly recognises the value of Revolut, both literally and symbolically, to the UK’s economy, and made her firm desire to see the bank get its long-awaited licence plain for all to see – to the point where she appeared to make Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey hot under the collar.
When I attended Revolut’s current account customer party in London 18 months ago – headline act, Charli XCX – it dawned on me that Storonsky was building much more than a boring bank. This is a firm that wants to touch every part of their customers’ financial lives, from saving to lending, investing, insurance, travel, gym memberships – you name it, they do it. For Storonsky, fast growth is never fast enough – his energy and determination is infectious.
Revolut is one of Britain’s success stories. We must shout it from the rooftops.