Revolut is valued at $115 billion in private markets, more than Britain's Barclays and France's Societe Generale. Yet ombudsman data compiled by consumer advocacy firm Which? show it was Britain's most-complained-about bank in 2024 and 2025 for fraud cases in which customers were tricked into sending money to scammers.
That gap between market enthusiasm and customer protection runs through the story of Europe's most valuable startup. The London-based company launched just over a decade ago as a fintech promising cheaper foreign-exchange fees. Investors are betting its technology platform will draw more customers worldwide.
Big Valuation, Smaller Profits
The numbers tell a more modest story than the valuation suggests. Revolut recorded £1.7 billion ($2.2 billion) in pretax profit in 2025, a fraction of Barclays' £9 billion. But the company is growing fast. In June, Paulo Macedo, CEO of Portugal's biggest bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, said 2025 was the last year the 150-year-old bank would record higher profit than Revolut.
Traditional lenders are watching closely. “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.
CEO Nik Storonsky has stressed that he wants Revolut to become truly global. The company is expanding into markets from Mexico to Australia and has announced several new licences in recent weeks. Some traditional lenders viewed as global, including HSBC, are reducing their retail footprint.
Scale Without the Lending
Revolut's website lists 80 million customers, compared with 84 million for JPMorgan and 41 million for HSBC. In Ireland, the company said 80% of the adult population has a Revolut account.
But revenue per customer is a fraction of established competitors', and average deposit balances are much lower than at traditional banks. Revolut lends far less, relying instead on fees such as card subscriptions. Its 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.
A Revolut spokesperson said the company has a “diversified business model,” earning revenue from various products and services rather than lending. “That means our growth depends on building things customers value, rather than on interest rates,” the spokesperson said.
Executives acknowledge that too few customers use the app as their primary bank account. The company declined to say how many did so in 2025 in its latest results, but reported that the figure had risen 45% from a year earlier. Alex Immerman, an investor at Andreessen Horowitz, known as “a16z”, told Reuters he was watching both primary-account adoption and total customer balances. Analysts and investors said scaling up lending would bring risks, including the challenge of managing large and complex credit exposures.
Setbacks and Scrutiny
Regulatory and security problems have also hit the company. Lithuania fined Revolut for failing to prevent money laundering. Revolut said an investigation found no confirmed instances of money laundering, and that it had signed a settlement with the central bank and taken steps to address shortcomings.
In September, hackers posing as government investigators tricked Revolut into sending them customer data. The company said the incident did not affect its systems or customer funds, and that it had contacted the “limited number of impacted individuals” to provide support.
On fraud, Revolut has previously said it takes the issue very seriously and has strong customer protections in place.
The next test lies in the United States, where Revolut holds a provisional licence. “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 just $5.5 billion.
Why This Matters: Revolut's 80 million customers include people who rely on it for everyday money. The fraud complaints, Lithuanian money-laundering fine and September data incident affect them directly. From a consumer-protection perspective, the questions are whether safeguards keep pace with growth and whether supervisors can hold a fast-expanding, cross-border financial firm to the same standards as older banks. Rivals already treat Revolut as a serious threat, and the company is moving into new licensed markets. How well it protects customers from scams, and how openly it reports on them, will matter to its users and the regulators overseeing it.