Revolut is valued at $115 billion in private markets, more than Britain's Barclays and France's Societe Generale, as investors bet its technology platform can win customers around the world. The London-based company now stands ahead of centuries-old banking giants by market worth, though its 2025 pretax profit of £1.7 billion remains far below Barclays' £9 billion. The figures tell two stories. One is a fast-growing challenger; the other is a financial system where investor expectations can make a company worth more than institutions earning much larger profits.
A valuation built on growth
Revolut launched just over a decade ago, promising cheaper foreign-exchange fees as a fintech. It has since become Europe's most valuable startup. Its rapid expansion worries established banks, whose executives now see it as a serious rival. “When you go to Europe the bank CEOs there are talking about Revolut as their most important threat because of their aggressive marketing and growth,” said Cihan Duran, director at S&P Global Ratings.
Paulo Macedo, CEO of Portugal's biggest bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, said in June that 2025 would be the last year the 150-year-old bank recorded higher profit than Revolut. CEO Nik Storonsky says he wants Revolut to become truly global. The company is pushing into markets from Mexico to Australia and has announced several new licences in recent weeks, with the aim of joining the handful of banks that operate retail businesses across so much of the globe. Some traditional lenders seen as global, including HSBC, are shrinking their retail footprint.
Revolut's growth case rests on persuading more people to make it their main bank. Its website lists 80 million customers, compared with 84 million for JPMorgan and 41 million for HSBC. In Ireland, Revolut said 80% of the adult population has an account. Yet executives concede that too few customers use it as their primary bank account. The company didn't say in its latest results how many did so in 2025, but reported that the figure had risen 45% from a year earlier.
Customers, credit and the risks
Revolut earns a fraction of the revenue per customer that established competitors do. Its lending business remains small by industry standards. Loans totalled £2.2 billion at end-2025, while its loan-to-deposit ratio stood at 6%, compared with 55% for HSBC and 86% for Societe Generale. Average deposits are much lower than at traditional banks, too. Rather than relying mainly on lending, Revolut earns revenue from products and services such as card subscriptions. A company spokesperson said its “diversified business model” means growth depends on building things customers value, not on interest rates.
More lending could expose the company to larger and more complex credit risks, analysts and investors said. They also said breaking into fiercely competitive local mortgage markets would be difficult. In the United States, where Revolut holds a provisional licence, investors expect stiffer competition. “The US could be potentially the biggest growth for Revolut. But at the same time, the US is the most competitive market,” said Konstantin Sidorov, CEO of the London Technology Club, which invested when Revolut was valued at $5.5 billion.
The costs behind the pitch
Revolut's record also features regulatory and consumer-protection problems. Lithuania fined the company for failing to prevent money laundering. Revolut said an investigation found no confirmed instances and that it had reached a settlement with the central bank and taken steps to fix shortcomings.
In September, hackers posing as government investigators received customer data after Revolut accidentally sent it to them. The company said the incident didn't affect its systems or customer funds, and that it contacted the “limited number of impacted individuals” to offer support. Data from the ombudsman, compiled by consumer advocacy firm Which?, showed Revolut topped Britain's bank complaint rankings in 2024 and 2025 for fraud cases where customers are tricked into sending money to scammers. Revolut says it takes fraud seriously and has strong customer protections. Investors, meanwhile, are tracking primary-account adoption and customer balances. The contest plays out in valuation and growth; customers experience it through the money they deposit, borrow, transfer and sometimes lose.