France’s ACPR and the ECB approved Revolut Bank S.A., giving the fintech a second EU banking hub as it expands across Western Europe
Revolut has received a full banking licence for its French subsidiary, Revolut Bank S.A. (RBSA), the fintech said on Monday. The Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) and the European Central Bank (ECB) assessed the application jointly, with the ECB Governing Council adopting the decision.
The licence gives Revolut a second banking base inside the European Union (EU), alongside Revolut Bank UAB in Lithuania. Both entities are supervised by their national regulator and the ECB. The digital bank will begin serving customers in France before extending to Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain in later phases.
Revolut: a second EU hub
Revolut serves about 30 million customers across Western Europe, its largest region, with close to 8 million added in the past year. It reports more than 75 million customers worldwide.
Ireland accounts for more than 3.4 million of the Western European total, Silicon Republic reported. Revolut Business serves hundreds of thousands of companies across the region, from freelancers to larger enterprises.
The company has committed more than €1bn ($1.15bn) to Western Europe and is hiring over 600 people across the region, including 400 in France.
Its Western European headquarters in Paris is due to open in 2027, chaired by Frédéric Oudéa, with Béatrice Cossa-Dumurgier as CEO for Western Europe. Being regulated in France lets the neobank offer products tailored to local customers, including loans, Cossa-Dumurgier told Reuters in April.
Nik Storonsky, Founder and CEO of Revolut, said the licence “gives us the foundation to build the next generation of banking for more than 30 million customers across Western Europe.”
Oudéa said the approval reflected “our long-term commitment to building a bank that meets the highest governance, regulatory and compliance standards,” while Cossa-Dumurgier said the decision followed months of work with the ACPR and the ECB, adding: “Our focus now turns to execution.”
The French entity is likely to launch with limits on new products and lending similar to those applied to the Lithuanian unit, Bloomberg reported on 21 July, citing people familiar with the matter. The ECB imposed those measures on Revolut Bank UAB last year. The digital bank did not reference any product restrictions in Monday’s statement.
From Lithuania to Paris
Revolut has operated local branches across Europe since 2021, starting with France and followed by Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Romania and Italy, the company said. It announced the Paris Western Europe HQ and its intention to apply for a French licence on 20 May 2025, at the Choose France summit, setting out a dual-HQ model alongside its existing Lithuanian entity.
The fintech, founded in Britain in 2015, holds a UK banking licence granted with restrictions and is pursuing a US bank charter, which Storonsky told Bloomberg in April it aimed to secure within four months. The neobank is undergoing a secondary share sale expected to value it at about $115bn, up from $75bn in a sale last year.
