Argentina’s Central Bank has approved Revolut Ltd. to acquire Banco Cetelem Argentina, handing the UK fintech a regulatory green light to move toward banking services in the country and a commercial launch in 2027.
Who Gets to Enter the Market
The approval gives Revolut a key opening in a system where access to banking depends on permission from the state’s financial gatekeepers. Revolut Argentina Chief Executive Officer Agustín Danza called it “a major milestone on the path to Revolut’s launch in Argentina” in an interview, and said, “Competing as a bank is when we can deploy the full power of our value proposition and have the greatest possible impact.” That’s the language of expansion dressed up as innovation. The company now has the regulator’s blessing to keep building toward a future launch, while ordinary people wait for whatever products eventually emerge from the corporate pipeline.
Revolut agreed in 2025 to purchase Banco Cetelem in Argentina from a BNP Paribas SA business as part of its expansion across Latin America, using the acquisition as a path to obtaining a banking license in the country. Following completion of the transaction, Banco Cetelem will be renamed Revolut Bank Argentina SAU, but it won’t initially offer products or services to the public as it works to build out its business. The company said in a press release that during this initial phase, the bank will focus on fulfilling all regulatory and operational requirements, while finalising its value proposition and preparing for a future market launch.
What People Are Waiting For
More than 150,000 consumers have joined Revolut’s Argentine waitlist ahead of the planned launch, according to the company. That number points to demand, but it also shows how tightly access to financial services is controlled by institutions that decide when and how people can use them. Revolut plans to eventually offer a single-app product combining everyday banking, credit, international spending and wealth services, among other products. For now, though, the public gets a waitlist while the company and regulators sort out the terms.
Danza said Revolut has assembled a local board that includes Juan Marotta, the former head of HSBC Argentina and HSBC South America, as chairman. The company is building its local structure around familiar financial power, not around anything resembling community control. It’s the same old hierarchy, just with a shinier app.
The Race for the Same Customers
Revolut’s entry is set to add more competition in one of Latin America’s most developed digital-payments markets. In Argentina, the digital lender will face Mercado Pago, the financial-technology arm of e-commerce giant MercadoLibre Inc, which dominates the local digital-wallet business, as well as banks and fintech companies including Ualá and Naranja X. MercadoLibre said last year that it would be seeking a banking license in Argentina for its fintech unit. At an event on September 24, a central-bank director said the license was expected to be granted before the end of the year, according to local media reports.
That’s the real shape of the field: corporate players, banks, and regulators deciding who gets to compete, who gets to expand, and who gets left waiting. The language is all about choice, but the structure is still top-down. Revolut says it will launch with a broad suite of services available through its app, rather than adding new services incrementally, Danza said. The company said it will stand out in a market that already has banks and digital wallets.
Revolut has been seeking to expand in markets outside of Europe. Latin America stands out as a key growth market for digital banking given its large population, which has traditionally been underserved by conventional lenders. Argentina is one of several Latin American markets Revolut is trying to crack. The company operates as a bank in Mexico and under a direct-credit license in Brazil, which means it can’t offer a full suite of banking services in the country. Last year, Revolut obtained a full banking license in Colombia.
The company’s pitch is simple enough: growth, scale, market share. Danza said consumers are financially sophisticated and early adopters of technology, that it’s a young population open to change, and that it’s a very attractive growth opportunity for Revolut. Those are the people being sized up from above. The approval may clear a path for Revolut’s plans, but it also shows how banking remains a controlled arena, with state permission and corporate strategy setting the terms for everyone else.