Crypto-friendly fintech unicorn Revolut plans to apply for a banking license in the United States, abandoning earlier plans to acquire a local lender as it seeks to expand its global presence.
The United Kingdom-based fintech has been in discussions with US officials about applying for a bank license through the Office for the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the newspaper reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The move, if confirmed, would be a milestone in strategy for Revolut, which said in September 2025 that it was exploring the purchase of a US bank to accelerate its global expansion.
Founded in the UK, Revolut unveiled its global strategy in 2025 and committed $13 billion in investment over the following five years to support international growth.
Following a share sale in November, Revolut was valued at $75 billion, placing it among the world’s most valuable fintechs.
Revolut hopes for faster US approval amid Trump’s deregulatory push
“It is our ambition to be a bank in the US,” Revolut US CEO Sid Jajodia reportedly said last year, adding: “We would love to get a banking license soon, because it’s part of our objective to scale in the market.”
The exec stressed that the company was still evaluating the pathways as of September 2025, adding that anything regulators can do to simplify the process would be helpful.
“A year is a long time in a tech space, so speed is critical,” Jajodia said at the time.
According to the report, Revolut opted to pursue a US banking license rather than acquire a local lender, betting the approval process could move more quickly under a crypto-friendly regulatory stance of the Trump administration.
Additionally, acquiring a community bank could have obliged Revolut to maintain physical branch networks, the sources said.
“We continue to actively explore all options, including a de novo bank license application,” a spokesperson for Revolut told Cointelegraph.
Revolut yet to fully roll out as a bank in the UK
Revolut has said that becoming a fully fledged UK lender was its “number one” priority, yet the company is yet to fully roll out as a bank with all services available to UK customers.
It received a restricted banking license from the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority in 2024.
Related: Revolut targets remittances and new banking license in Peru: Report
As part of its broader global expansion push, Revolut has been securing regulatory approvals in other markets in the past few months.
In late 2025, the company said it received banking licenses in Colombia and Mexico, and in October, obtained a Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation license from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.
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