Revolut has applied for a Swiss banking license at the Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA. The representative office in Zurich should become a full bank with a Swiss IBAN.
Revolut is a British fintech app, first launched for cheap travel payments and currency exchange. Today the app bundles account, card payments, securities trading and crypto services in one interface. In Switzerland, the provider so far operates through the Lithuanian Revolut Bank UAB together with Revolut Securities Europe UAB. The regulator first approved a representative office in Zurich in January 2024. It started operations in July 2024. However, that permit does not cover independent Swiss banking business. Domestically the company counts 1.3 million customers, and around 240,000 of them joined in fiscal year 2025. Moreover, Revolut plans to invest more than CHF 150 million in the Swiss market over the next five years.
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What the Swiss banking license changes for Revolut customers
FINMA supervises banks, insurers and financial service providers in Switzerland and grants every banking license. With a license of its own, Revolut could run salary accounts with a Swiss IBAN. Swiss deposit insurance would also apply. Today the accounts of Swiss users run through the Lithuanian entity, therefore under a foreign banking permit. As a result, the decision touches salary payments, standing orders and the supervisor behind the deposits.
Further services are already on the review list. They include payment processing for merchants, pillar 3a products and a Twint offering. Pillar 3a refers to tax-privileged private retirement savings in Switzerland. Whether these products arrive, however, depends on the regulator's decision. The authority is currently reviewing the application, and a result is still pending. So far nobody has named a timeline.
The announced CHF 150 million should flow into new products and local jobs. Additionally, the plan covers an expansion of the board of directors and the management level. A Swiss bank needs its own governance and control bodies in the country. Around 30 employees currently work for Revolut in Zurich, and General Manager Julian Biegmann runs the Swiss unit. He has signaled a tripling of the headcount by the end of next year.
"Revolut is already the leading fintech in Switzerland. With a banking license of our own, we would become a true Swiss bank that offers its more than 1.3 million customers the Revolut banking product with a Swiss touch." - Julian Biegmann, General Manager
Revolut is already the largest neobank in Switzerland
Revolut leads the Swiss neobank market with 1.3 million customers. Neobanks are providers without a branch network that deliver the account and the card through the smartphone. In contrast, Yuh reaches around 400,000 customers, Neon around 250,000. Together the two domestic providers therefore cover roughly half of the Revolut base.
In fiscal year 2025 alone, around 240,000 customers joined. Thus the growth of a single year almost matches the entire customer base of Neon. Market entry through a payments app has consequently given the provider a footprint that no domestic competitor reaches.
Internationally the same pattern repeats. The group already holds banking licenses in the United Kingdom, Lithuania and France. The British permit followed in March 2026, the French one later in August. In the United States, the banking regulator OCC additionally granted conditional approval for a national bank charter. Worldwide Revolut counts more than 80 million customers. By its own account, the company operates as a licensed bank in more than 30 of 40 markets. Overall, the Swiss application follows a line that has been running for years.
Sygnum and AMINA already shape the Swiss crypto banking market
Incumbents already occupy the Swiss market for crypto banking. Sygnum and SEBA, today AMINA Bank, originally received the first FINMA banking licenses for digital assets. Both approvals date from August 2019. In 2024 Sygnum managed around 4.5 billion in client assets and reported positive EBITDA of CHF 8.1 million. AMINA reached around CHF 3.5 billion and targets profitability by 2026 at the latest.
At the same time, lawmakers are rebuilding the rulebook. In October 2025 the Federal Council opened the consultation on a FINIG revision, and the deadline ran until 06.02.2026. The proposal foresees two new license categories for the crypto sector, modeled on the European CASP regime. One of the two categories replaces the previous fintech license and additionally allows the issuance of stablecoins. The new categories should take effect in 2027 at the earliest. Already in force is the FINMA supervisory notice 01/2026 from January. It permits the delegation of crypto custody to foreign third parties. Supervision must be equivalent and insolvency protection comparable.
Established institutions have followed as well. Zürcher Kantonalbank has offered trading and custody of Bitcoin and Ethereum since 2024. PostFinance likewise opened crypto access to retail customers. ZKB works with Crypto Finance AG for this, while PostFinance settles through Sygnum. In April 2026 a banking consortium also announced a test environment for a CHF stablecoin. Behind it stand UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise and Swiss Stablecoin AG. A newcomer with a banking license would therefore meet a field that already covers digital assets.
