Revolut wins full French banking licence as EU push continues

Béatrice Cossa-Dumurgier, CEO of Western Europe at Revolut. Image: Revolut

The fintech’s French entity becomes its second full EU banking hub, with Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain to follow, it says.

Revolut has received a full banking licence in France, giving the fintech giant a second European hub as it presses ahead with its ambition to become “the world’s first truly global bank”.

Revolut Bank SA (RBSA) was granted the licence following a joint assessment by the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (part of France’s Central Bank) and the European Central Bank, with the decision formally adopted by the ECB Governing Council. The company, which claims more than 75m customers worldwide, said the move marks a historic milestone in its European journey.

The licence lands as Revolut deepens its roots across Western Europe, its largest and fastest-growing region with about 30m customers, including close to 8m who joined in the past year alone. Ireland accounts for more than 3.4m of those customers.