London-headquartered Revolut is considering obtaining a banking license in Australia when the fintech firm has already been waiting for the same license in the United Kingdom since 2021. The license would take the platform closure to allow clients "manage their entire financial lives."

"A bank licence is still very much part of our plans," Matt Baxby, the CEO of Revolut's Australia business, told The Australian in an interview. "To be held to that regulatory standard would give our consumers confidence for the long haul, and would enable products that are in demand from our customers. We're working our way through that, and it's a key part of our plans overall."

Revolut offers a range of payment services in Australia, Europe, and several other countries. Its offerings also include cryptocurrency trading and even staking services in some jurisdictions.

Targeting Aussie Businesses

The revelation aligned with Revolut's launch of business accounts in Australia. The multi-currency business accounts will allow Aussie clients to exchange up to 75,000 AUD per month.

While Revolut has around 100,000 business customers across Europe, it witnessed significant demand from Australian small to medium enterprises for international payment solutions.

"What we hear a lot from them is that they really want a solution that allows them to do business overseas. And we have a lot of European customers who have Australian subsidiaries and vice versa, so we think we're going to get quite a lot of traction with that," Baxby added.

Commenting on Mikko Salovaara, Revolut's CFO departure Mr. Gibson said - “Overall I can say we are pretty stable,”
“Mikko resigned for personal reasons, and the business wishes him well.”

— Max Karpis (@maxkarpis) May 17, 2023

A Profitable Fintech

Established in 2015, the company became profitable last year with a pretax profit of £59.1 million on revenue of £636.2 million. The profitability came a year after with a pretax loss of £205 million.

Meanwhile, the valuation of the fintech firm was slashed by 46 percent to $17.7 billion earlier this year by Schroders, one of Revolut's most steadfast investors. It came down from $33 billion, which the fintech was evaluated at the time of a funding round in 2021.

Furthermore, the company is facing some scrutiny as the auditor BDO could not verify three-quarters of the revenue reported by the fintech in its delayed 2021 accounts. Its Chief Financial Officer, Mikko Salovaara, is also leaving the company for personal reasons.