Revolut's UK banking license delay highlights growing rift between innovation and regulation

"Revolut's remarkable rise from a London startup to one of the world's largest digital financial platforms has transformed the banking landscape. With more than 65 million users across 38 markets, Revolut has redefined what consumers expect from financial services. Its all-in-one app offers instant international transfers, competitive foreign exchange, budgeting tools, crypto and stock trading, and seamless digital payments. To many, it feels less like a bank and more like an operating system for modern money management."

"Yet despite its global reach, Revolut still lacks the ultimate endorsement of regulatory trust: a full UK banking license. The delay - now stretching over three years - underscores how regulators are struggling to evaluate institutions that operate at digital speed and global scale. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), part of the Bank of England, is understood to have hesitated over approving Revolut's application due to concerns about governance and risk management - particularly how its internal controls can keep pace with rapid international growth."

""Unlike traditional banks, which grew incrementally over decades with local branches and sequential market entry, Revolut has scaled 5,000% in a few years, operating simultaneously across dozens of countries," says Joanne Kumire, Lead Analyst for Banking and Payments at GlobalData. "This is hard mode for regulators. The PRA's frameworks were never built for a bank operating at this speed and scale.""

Revolut has grown to more than 65 million users across 38 markets, offering payments, FX, budgeting, crypto and stock trading in a single app. The company operates like an operating system for modern money management but still lacks a full UK banking license, with approval delayed for over three years. The Prudential Regulation Authority has expressed concerns about governance, risk management, and whether internal controls can match rapid international expansion. Rapid simultaneous entry into dozens of markets multiplies compliance burdens across differing financial, data-protection, and anti-money-laundering regimes, exposing gaps between innovation pace and regulatory frameworks.

Read at Business Matters