Digital lender abandons acquisition route in favour of de novo US bank application
Britain’s Revolut has abandoned plans to acquire an existing United States bank and is instead preparing to seek its own American banking licence.
The London-based fintech had previously explored buying a US-chartered lender to speed up access to the national banking system and offer services across all 50 states. That approach has now been dropped after the firm concluded that an acquisition would be slower and more complex than expected, including possible obligations to retain physical branches that sit awkwardly with its digital-only model.
Revolut scraps US merger plans in favour of push for standalone licence https://t.co/vVhDJya4WS
— Finance News (@ftfinancenews) January 23, 2026
Revolut is now working on an application for a “de novo” banking licence from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the primary federal regulator for national banks. A de novo licence is granted to newly established banks rather than those formed by acquisition, and the company is understood to be hoping for a relatively swift process under the Trump administration’s lighter-touch regulatory stance.
In its response to the reports, the company said that the US remains central to its ambitions and that it is assessing more than one regulatory route. “The US market is critical for Revolut’s global growth strategy and our long-term plan is to establish a bank in the US,” said a spokesperson at Revolut. The firm added that it continues to consider a de novo licence application among other options.
Revolut, valued at about $75 billion (£55.3 billion) following a secondary share sale last year, has been positioning itself as one of Europe’s most prominent financial technology groups as it builds out services in key markets. The decision to pursue a US licence follows earlier comments from the company that it was weighing the purchase of a US bank to accelerate global expansion, alongside plans to launch credit cards in its home market. The change in approach suggests that establishing a greenfield US bank is now seen internally as the cleaner route.
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