Revolut pushes for banking licence

Speaking to the Senate select committee on Australia as a technology and financial centre last week, Revolut Australia chief executive Matt Baxby reflected on the company’s growth ambitions.

Revolut, which was founded in the UK, has a banking licence in the European Union. It applied for a licence in the UK earlier this year, with its local arm looking to follow suit.

“We’ve engaged with APRA and are intent on filing an application to become an Aussie bank,” Mr Baxby told the committee.

“Our mission is to directly challenge the incumbent banks. They’ve got wide margins. They offer a suboptimal user experience and their business model’s really quite reliant on customer apathy.

“We want to give value back to consumers where they’ve been underserved for so long, and we want to put Australians back in control of their finances.”

A spokesperson for Revolut told Mortgage Business that it has no immediate plans to enter the mortgage market, with a focus on delivering its existing product feature set to Australia.

Currently, the group offers its customers a prepaid card and a linked account, which includes automated budgeting tools and access to a range of cryptocurrencies.

The fintech operates across 35 countries, has more than 16 million retail customers and around 500,000 small-business customers.

In Australia, the local team has grown from three staff when it launched a year ago, to its current 25.

The fintech recently recruited from 86 400 and Citi for two senior additions to its team, including a new head of lending.

Daniel Gosarevski, former Citibank Australia head of portfolio management within the cards and consumer lending segment, took the role of Australian lending head.

[Related: PEXA continues growth path, fuelled by property boom]