By Tommy Reggiori Wilkes
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Revolut said on Tuesday it was exploring buying a U.S. bank to accelerate global expansion and preparing to launch consumer credit in its home market, as the digital finance firm seeks to encroach further onto the turf of traditional lenders.
The London-based company has emerged as the most valuable of a crop of European financial technology firms and is seeking a $75 billion valuation in a secondary share sale.
It has 65 million customers, topping some of the biggest European banks, although Revolut’s client deposit base and revenues are far smaller.
Unveiling Revolut’s new headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf financial district on Tuesday, executives said the 10-year-old company would significantly expand its international footprint but would still invest in Britain $4 billion of a total $13 billion it wants to spend globally by 2030.
“We are committed to the UK as our home country,” Nik Storonsky, Revolut’s CEO and co-founder, told an audience, shortly after UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves also spoke, cheering Revolut and Britain’s fintech industry.
Revolut is “actively looking” at whether to acquire a U.S. bank or to apply for its own banking licence there, Revolut’s U.S. CEO Sid Jajodia told Reuters, confirming earlier media reports on its U.S. ambitions.
He said “being a bank in every market we operate in is critical”, not least in the U.S. where Revolut’s business remains small.
Storonsky said his top priority was to get a UK banking licence – a process running for several years – to transfer its 12 million customers into the new bank and “offer them credit” products. Executives say they hope to obtain the final licence this year.
Revolut said its coming investments in Britain would involve adding 1,000 more staff and capitalising the new UK bank.
Its total $13 billion investment ambition over five years compares to Revolut’s global revenues in 2024 of 3.1 billion pounds ($4.2 billion).
The company also put a target date of mid-2027 for reaching a previously disclosed goal of 100 million customers.
Despite its rapid growth, analysts say average customer deposits at Revolut are lower than at traditional banks and executives acknowledge too few customers use it as their primary account. Revolut made a pre-tax profit of 1.1 billion pounds last year, partly driven by cryptocurrency earnings.
The company also said it would enter 30 new markets by 2030, including across Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
($1 = 0.7393 pounds)
(Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Iain Withers and Mark Potter)
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