Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Business
City Spy

Revolut's new banking licence strategy

Revolut’s fearless quest to finally secure a British banking licence is entering its fourth year.

 In its early years, the Canary Wharf-based business was keen to talk up its cryptocurrency offering, which was way more extensive than anything the high street banks were doing. Indeed, many customers would have flocked to Revolut as a place to store their Bitcoin given that several banks banned crypto transactions altogether. But now the fintech seems to be quietly distancing itself from its roots.

 Revolut said this month it was still in talks with financial regulators to get that licence, as it posted its 2023 accounts (on time this year, well done chaps). But aside from a lack of qualified audit opinion for the first time in a while, Spy noticed another thing that was conspicuously absent from the accounts: the word ‘crypto’.

 Spy crunched the numbers and found that in its 2020 annual report, Revolut mentioned ‘crypto’ at least 88 times. But by the 2023 annual report, that had sunk to just 22 times, despite the fact that the report had more than doubled in size. ‘Crypto’ mentions per page plummeted from 1.1 to just 0.1, per the chart blow.

 Perhaps if they can get it down to zero next year, they’ll finally get that coveted banking licence. Best of luck to them, says Spy.

Sign up to the weekly City Spy newsletter for your unmissable round-up of gossip, analysis and untold stories inside the Square Mile:  standard.co.uk/newsletters

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.