The company confirmed on Thursday that it had submitted applications for a national bank charter to both the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Securing a charter would allow the $75bn firm to offer insured deposits directly to US customers and eliminate its reliance on partner banks to deliver regulated banking services.

Sid Jajodia, Revolut’s US chief executive, said the timing of the application had been encouraged by the Trump administration’s favourable stance towards new entrants to the regulated banking system, including greater clarity around cryptocurrency. He was subsequently elevated to global chief banking officer, with Cetin Duransoy – formerly of savings platform Raisin – stepping into the US chief executive role.

Founded in 2015, Revolut now serves more than 70 million customers across more than 40 markets, and already counts around half a million small business customers and a similar number of retail users in the United States. The company intends to launch personal loans and credit cards as its initial US product offering, Financial Times reports.

The move comes despite Revolut not yet holding a full UK banking licence. Although it received authorisation from the Prudential Regulation Authority in 2024, it remains in the mobilisation phase, meaning its UK banking division may hold no more than £50,000 in total deposits. The company had originally planned to pursue a US licence only after fully securing its UK one.

A previous attempt to enter the American market stalled in 2021, when Revolut drafted a preliminary application for the FDIC and Californian regulators but did not proceed to a formal submission. Under the Biden administration, the OCC had taken a stricter approach to foreign bank licensing.

The regulatory environment has since shifted: in 2024 alone, 14 applications were made to the OCC for a de novo charter, nearly matching the total from the previous four years, and in December the OCC approved five banking licences, including for crypto firms Circle and Ripple.

Revolut will nonetheless face stiff competition in the US, where the credit card market is dominated by established players with deep customer loyalty.