British neobank Revolut has gained conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to launch a full-service bank in the U.S. The nod comes roughly six months after Revolut applied for an OCC charter, and almost a year after then-U.S. CEO Sid Jajodia said a bank charter would give the firm “a seat at the table” with U.S. regulators. Founder and CEO Nik Storonsky called the decision “an important first step towards establishing the proposed Revolut Bank US.”
The conditional approval letter sets specific financial requirements. The bank’s initial paid-in capital, after deducting all organizational and pre-opening expenses, must be at least $95 million. Revolut must also maintain a tier 1 leverage ratio of no less than 10% through its first three years after opening. The preliminary conditional approval does not include Revolut’s proposed retail foreign exchange business, which requires separate supervisory non-objection from the OCC before launch. Revolut U.S. CEO Cetin Duransoy, who took the helm in March when Jajodia became global chief banking officer, said the agency was “both diligent and expedient” and that the company remains on track for a 2027 launch.
The charter pursuit fits a broader expansion push. Last September, Revolut committed $13 billion toward global expansion, including $500 million toward U.S. expansion alone. The company recently launched its Mexican bank and said it has been making regulatory progress in Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Argentina. This year, Revolut has obtained bank licenses in France, Australia and the U.K., and a payments license in the UAE. In May, the company said it had surpassed 70 million customers globally. Storonsky wrote on LinkedIn that “you can’t build a truly global bank without becoming a full-service bank in the United States.”
What remains unknown is the timing and outcome of the remaining approvals. Revolut must still gain approval from the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The OCC’s conditional approval is preliminary, and the dossier does not specify when those additional regulatory decisions are expected or what conditions they may impose. The source also does not detail how Revolut plans to meet the capital and leverage requirements or how the excluded retail foreign exchange business may affect the bank’s eventual product offering.