Revolut, one of Europe’s largest digital banks, is advancing a multi-billion dollar strategy to deepen its footprint in the European Union by targeting France as its next operational hub.
The UK-based fintech firm announced plans to invest over €1 billion (approximately $1.1 billion) into its French operations, establish a new EU headquarters in Paris, and apply for a domestic banking license as it aims to capitalize on its fastest-growing market in the bloc.
The move, revealed during the May 2025 Choose France business summit - an economic diplomacy event hosted by President Emmanuel Macron - is part of Revolut’s broader bid to solidify its status as a pan-European financial services provider amid shifting regulatory dynamics and increased competition in the digital banking and crypto-fintech sectors.
Revolut’s decision to seek a banking license from the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) signals a pivot from its reliance on Lithuania’s banking license - granted in 2018 - for serving EU clients. While the Lithuanian license has enabled passporting rights across the European Economic Area (EEA), recent regulatory pressure from host states, including France, has intensified around direct oversight of large fintechs operating locally.
According to sources cited by Fortune, French regulators have been urging Revolut to formalize its operations through a national license due to the neobank’s substantial user base - reportedly over five million customers in France alone. The absence of a domestic license has been viewed as a challenge to local supervisory authorities’ ability to oversee compliance, cybersecurity, and risk management protocols.
The license application is also seen as a strategic step for Revolut to access the French deposit guarantee scheme and strengthen its credit and lending services in the country, moving beyond the limitations of its current e-money institution model.
Strategic Relocation of EU Base to Paris
Beyond licensing, Revolut is preparing to relocate its European headquarters from Lithuania to France, signaling Paris’s growing role as a magnet for fintech operations post-Brexit. Revolut will hire at least 200 employees in Paris within the next three years, expanding its French workforce from around 300 today.
France has become increasingly assertive in courting tech and finance firms to anchor their European bases in the country. The Macron government has actively used the Choose France summit as a platform to showcase regulatory modernization and incentives for investment.
Revolut’s announcement of a €1 billion commitment aligns with this narrative, and it follows similar relocation strategies seen from other fintechs and asset managers looking to hedge against political uncertainty and regulatory fragmentation across Europe.
Growth Targets and Product Expansion
France is Revolut’s top-performing EU market, but the firm is betting heavily on even greater growth across the continent. The company aims to grow its French user base from 5 million to 10 million by the end of 2026, with plans to double that number by 2030.
Globally, Revolut claims more than 55 million customers as of May 2025, supported by a headcount exceeding 10,000 employees. The company offers a broad suite of financial services, including multicurrency accounts, commission-free trading, crypto access, credit products, and international remittance - all from a mobile-first platform.
In 2024, Revolut generated revenues of £3.1 billion (around $4 billion), according to its latest annual report. These figures underscore its evolution from a prepaid card startup into one of the most diversified fintech companies globally, now vying for full banking status in multiple jurisdictions.
Parallel Licensing Efforts Signal Global Strategy
Revolut’s French license application is part of a wider effort to transition from an e-money provider to a regulated bank across all its key markets. In July 2024, the firm secured its long-awaited UK banking license, enabling it to expand its lending portfolio and compete more directly with traditional banks for deposit business. The license covers Revolut’s 11 million UK users - its single largest national user base.
Earlier this month, Revolut also secured a Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) license in India from the Reserve Bank of India. This allows the company to offer multicurrency forex cards and cross-border remittances - a significant move given India’s remittance volumes and expanding digital payments ecosystem.
In total, Revolut has at least 10 active licensing applications under review in various regions. This regulatory expansion is essential not just for scaling its financial services, but for ensuring compliance with rapidly evolving financial oversight regimes and data protection laws worldwide.
Crypto Integration and Digital Asset Risk
Revolut remains one of the few mainstream neobanks to provide integrated cryptocurrency services directly in its mobile app, allowing users to buy, sell, and hold digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others.
This crypto functionality has been central to Revolut’s appeal among younger users and international markets where access to digital assets through traditional banks remains limited. However, it also subjects the firm to additional regulatory scrutiny, particularly in jurisdictions where crypto trading is being brought under securities law or where consumer protection frameworks are being drafted for digital asset custody and trading.
The firm’s decision to move forward with a French banking license will likely bring additional requirements in terms of anti-money laundering (AML), crypto asset risk disclosures, and financial stability oversight, especially as France implements the EU-wide Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation set to take full effect in 2025–2026.
Regulatory Tightening and Strategic Rerouting
Revolut’s EU reorientation must also be seen in the context of Brexit. Since the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, British-based financial services firms have faced complex challenges in maintaining passporting rights. This has led to a wave of companies - particularly fintechs and trading platforms - seeking licenses and operational bases within the bloc to continue servicing clients without interruption.
At the same time, EU member states have begun tightening their oversight of tech-forward financial firms. Critics argue that some neobanks have prioritized user growth and product diversification over robust risk controls. European regulators are increasingly focused on consumer protection, cybersecurity resilience, and structural soundness - particularly after recent high-profile failures of banking and crypto platforms.
For Revolut, moving its regulatory nexus to France provides not just continued access to the EU market but a way to demonstrate regulatory alignment and stability to potential institutional partners, investors, and customers.
Final thoughts
Revolut’s push into France comes at a time of growing competition across European digital banking. Domestic challenger banks like N26 (Germany) and Bunq (Netherlands) are expanding services, while incumbent banks are rapidly digitizing their offerings to capture younger, tech-savvy users. Legacy banks such as BNP Paribas and Société Générale have launched or acquired mobile-first banking subsidiaries to fend off disruption.
Moreover, as crypto services become more normalized within fintech apps, competition is rising not just from other neobanks but from crypto-native platforms such as Bitpanda (Austria), which recently received MiCA registration, and Binance, which has announced a strategic withdrawal from certain EU markets to focus on regulated jurisdictions.
This dynamic creates both opportunity and risk for Revolut. The company’s willingness to embed deeply in local regulatory regimes may position it as a more stable partner to users and regulators - but it will also need to meet heightened compliance and supervisory expectations that come with that status.
Revolut’s €1 billion investment commitment and licensing application in France represent more than an operational update - they are a strategic pivot toward entrenching the neobank’s role as a fully regulated, pan-European financial institution. With regulatory headwinds mounting across both traditional banking and crypto sectors, establishing local legitimacy is becoming essential.
While the company continues to court global growth - from the UK and EU to India and Latin America - its move to base EU operations in Paris may also mark a new chapter in how cross-border fintechs navigate fragmented regulations, public trust issues, and the need for onshore compliance in a post-Brexit financial landscape.
How successfully Revolut can deliver on its ambitious user and hiring targets, while satisfying French regulatory expectations and expanding in an increasingly crowded field, will define its long-term viability - not only as a neobank, but as a model for next-generation financial platforms in a regulated era.