Revolut Secures Full Banking License In France After ECB Standoff

Revolut has been granted a new full banking license in France, with sign-off from the European Central Bank, following a stretch of friction with the prudential regulator. The USD 75bn fintech is currently in the middle of a secondary share sale expected to value the group at USD 115bn, and it said on Monday that its European arm will use the new French permit to push further into the continent.

For fintech operators building or scaling a banking footprint in Europe, this is worth watching. A supervisory dispute with the ECB doesn’t have to be the end of a group’s expansion plans, as long as the governance issues behind it actually get fixed.

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Two banking entities, one European strategy

Revolut runs its European business through two separate entities. Revolut Bank S.A. is the one that just picked up the new license from the French regulator. Revolut Bank UAB, based in Lithuania, holds the group’s original European banking authorisation. Between them, these entities serve more than 30 million customers across Western Europe.

The rollout under the new French license starts with customers in France, with Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain expected to follow later.

The backdrop: a regulator standoff

The new approval comes after a rougher period. The ECB placed restrictions on Revolut’s European operations last year, and the bank’s ability to launch new products across the 27 countries in the European Economic Area was suspended for a time last summer.

Revolut was told to fix “deficiencies” in its product approval process, and the central bank ordered a third-party review of the group’s risk, compliance and legal functions for new European launches. The restrictions also stopped Revolut from making acquisitions or taking on new customers outside the continent while the intervention was in place.

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What changed

Over the past year, Revolut Bank UAB has reworked its internal product launch process, including a stronger review stage involving internal experts and the bank’s governing bodies.

At the time, a Revolut spokesperson described the back-and-forth with regulators as part of the normal course of running a fully licensed bank. The group’s European banking history goes back to 2018, when it secured a specialized banking license from the Bank of Lithuania, later upgraded to a full European banking license in 2021.

Why this matters for fintech founders and operators

Getting a banking license doesn’t take a group out of the regulator’s sightline. If anything, the scrutiny goes up. Revolut’s experience is a fairly clear illustration of what a prudential regulator wants to see once it flags deficiencies: real governance changes, an internal review process that actually functions, and enough runway for the supervisor to trust that the fixes are holding.

France’s role in this is worth noting too. Revolut named Paris its Western European headquarters last year, alongside a pledged EUR 1bn investment and more than 200 new jobs in the country. Founder Nik Storonsky pointed to France’s financial ecosystem and regulatory framework as part of the reasoning. London stays the group’s global base.

For any fintech or digital banking project weighing where to seek a banking, EMI or PSP authorization in Europe, this is a reminder that getting the license is just the starting point. Passporting rights across the EEA come with ongoing supervisory obligations, and internal compliance infrastructure needs to be built to survive exactly this kind of review.

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Where this leaves groups evaluating a European banking license

Revolut’s path from restrictions to a new full license took roughly a year of internal remediation before the ECB and the French regulator signed off. That’s a useful benchmark for any digital bank or EMI thinking through its own European authorization plans, and a reminder that regulatory work doesn’t stop once a license is granted.

LegalBison follows developments like this the same way it follows any licensing jurisdiction: what the approval process actually involves, how long remediation tends to take in practice, and what a regulator wants to see before it lifts restrictions.

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