Revolut Bank S.A. (RBSA) has been granted a full French banking licence, with final approval given by the ECB Governing Council on 10 August 2026 following a joint assessment by France’s ACPR and the ECB. This is Revolut’s second standalone eurozone banking licence, alongside its existing Lithuanian entity, Revolut Bank UAB.
Why It Matters
Until now, Revolut served its EU customers by passporting its Lithuanian banking licence — a model that works across borders but makes it harder to offer country-specific products such as local savings accounts or lending. A standalone French licence lets Revolut issue products directly under French/ECB supervision rather than solely through the Lithuanian passport.
What’s Changing
RBSA will begin serving customers first in France, with plans to expand the same locally licensed model to Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Revolut says it will invest more than €1 billion in Western Europe and create over 600 new jobs, alongside a new regional headquarters opening in Paris in 2027.
Scale
Revolut already serves roughly 30 million customers across Western Europe, with close to 8 million joining in 2025 alone. The French licence formalises a second EU banking base as the group continues to expand its footprint ahead of a widely rumoured future IPO.
What It Means for Users
For existing Revolut customers, day-to-day banking is unaffected in the short term — EU accounts continue to run under the existing Lithuanian entity until any customer migration is communicated directly by Revolut. The licence mainly signals Revolut’s shift toward locally regulated, locally supervised banking in its largest EU markets rather than an immediate account change.
Source: https://www.revolut.com/news/revolut_receives_french_banking_licence/