Revolut's £1.3bn Profit Tests Europe's Regulatory Balance

Revolut posted a profit of £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) in 2025, up from a loss of nearly £100 million ($130 million) in 2019, the first year it published results. Its customer base climbed from around 10 million to more than 80 million. Now founder Nik Storonsky wants to build what he calls the first global bank, moving at the pace of a technology company. Regulators on both sides of the Channel have spent the past year or so asking whether safeguards can keep up.

Storonsky, 42, was born in Dolgoprudny, outside Moscow, and later became a naturalized British citizen. He trained in mathematics, physics and economics, then started as a derivatives trader at Lehman Brothers. From his London trading desk, he watched the firm collapse in 2008, 18 years ago. He spoke to El País at Revolut's new Paris headquarters on Rue Réaumur, where construction continues and offices won't be complete for months.

Scrutiny of a Fast-Growing Lender

The scrutiny has been real. In 2025, the European Central Bank temporarily restricted new product launches as it reviewed whether Revolut's controls could keep pace with growth. In the United Kingdom, regulators delayed the company's full banking licence for years while they assessed whether its financial-crime safeguards suited a firm of its size.

Storonsky says Revolut has responded in kind. About 200 engineers build tools for regulatory compliance, while a separate team of about 250 engineers, data scientists and product staff handles financial-crime regulation. Revolut uses artificial intelligence in engineering, customer support, compliance and financial-crime prevention, he says. “It’s possible to be fast, creative and compliant,” is his line.

On lending, he stresses caution. Revolut's loan-to-deposit ratio is around 4%, and he doesn't expect it to exceed 10%, 15% or 20%; the aim, he says, is to stay safe and avoid risky business. Founded in 2015, Revolut grew through payments, cards, foreign exchange, subscriptions and investing, not the large loan books typical of traditional banks. Interest accounted for 21.6% of total income, and eleven business lines each generated more than £100 million in annual revenue.

What Customers Are Paying For

Storonsky's pitch rests on a critique of incumbents. Private banking, he says, remains expensive and opaque: high fees, poor products and client service built around manual interactions with private bankers. Traditional banks, he argues, run on legacy systems, sometimes outsourced, and were designed to operate in one country. Those that expanded often bought other banks, leaving systems that don't talk to each other. At such institutions, he says, “it's almost impossible to get something new off the ground.”

The profitability gap is stark, though the comparison comes with caveats. Santander earned about $16.5 billion in 2025 and BBVA roughly $12.3 billion. Revolut doesn't publish standard bank profitability metrics, but calculations from its accounts suggest a return on equity of about 35% in 2025, compared with 16.3% for Santander and 19.3% for BBVA. The numbers aren't fully comparable: listed banks publish official ratios, while Revolut doesn't.

Europe's Fragmentation Problem

Storonsky also spoke to the European project itself. Europe's fragmentation, he said, blocks the creation of more companies like Revolut. He contrasted it with the United States, a single market where Silicon Valley entrepreneurs reinvest in startups. Europe has many countries and regulators, he said, and faces heavier regulation than the United States.

He was candid about regulators' caution. Lending faces more regulation than lifestyle products and is largely commoditized, he said. Even Klarna's buy-now-pay-later product, perhaps the latest lending innovation, became heavily regulated. Society and regulators tend to prefer less risky lending products, he said, even though innovation could improve efficiency and bring risks.

Expansion and Ownership

Revolut remains privately held. Storonsky said a stock-market listing is unlikely before 2028. A secondary share sale this summer valued the company at about $115 billion. A public offering could let customers share in the company's growth and serve as marketing, he said. He recalled that crowdfunding about 10 years earlier aimed to raise awareness and attract customers, not capital.

The company is looking well beyond Europe. It already operates in Japan, has launched a pilot in India and holds a banking licence in Australia; New Zealand could be next. Storonsky described China as highly competitive, while Indonesia and Malaysia are underdeveloped markets where Revolut plans to expand. The company recently received central-bank approval to acquire Banco Cetelem in Argentina. He cited Turkey as a market where new players must buy a bank because authorities no longer issue licences and are seeking to consolidate the industry.

Revolut is also moving into the physical world, with offices and ATMs in Spain. Storonsky said an office can generate impressions more cost-effectively than digital advertising on Google, Facebook and Instagram. A physical presence, he added, can build trust and reputation.

Asked what would count as winning, he said: “I hope I can say we have won if we are larger than JPMorgan [laughs]. I'm not sure if it's possible in 15 years' time, but we'll see.”

Why This Matters: Revolut's rise shows what European consumers want from finance—and what can happen when a firm grows faster than the rules around it. More than 80 million customers now rely on an institution the ECB restricted only a year ago, while UK regulators kept its full banking licence waiting for years. That's the gap between innovation and accountability that public authorities exist to close. Storonsky's complaint about fragmented European regulation deserves a hearing, and a more integrated single market would help homegrown firms scale. But the past year has shown that growth without strong financial-crime controls puts customers and the wider system at risk. Brussels and national supervisors face a hard task: build consistent cross-border rules strong enough to protect ordinary savers, without letting a few capture the gains from fast growth while everyone shares the risks.