Revolut applies for a Swiss banking licence and commits CHF 150 million

Revolut has filed for a banking licence with Swiss regulator FINMA and committed more than CHF 150 million to the Swiss market over the next five years, which it describes as one of the largest investments by a financial services company in the Swiss sector in decades. The application is under review. Revolut already has over 1.3 million customers in Switzerland.

On approval it plans Swiss IBANs, salary accounts, eBill, deposit protection under Swiss standards and merchant acquiring, with Pillar 3a and a TWINT offering named as future possibilities. Existing Swiss customers would migrate to the new entity.

Swiss merchant acquiring has been a comfortable domestic market, and Revolut is the first challenger of this size to say plainly that it intends to compete there on a local licence rather than passporting in. The stated intent to offer TWINT sits directly against the incumbent domestic scheme at a moment when its merchant pricing is already being contested by the Swiss retail trade.

Switzerland is also outside the EU licensing regime, so a FINMA licence is a deliberate and expensive commitment rather than an administrative extension.

How long FINMA takes, whether merchant acquiring is in the first product wave or a later one, and whether Revolut confirms a TWINT integration.

• fintech.global
• Revolut press release
• Cyprus Mail