Revolut has formally applied to Switzerland’s financial regulator FINMA for a domestic banking licence. It is touted as a move that would allow the British-Lithuanian neobank to offer salary accounts, Swiss IBANs, and full deposit protection, directly challenging the country’s cantonal banks and Raiffeisen for everyday retail customers.
Revolut Applies For Swiss Banking Licence, Targeting Cantonal Banks And Raiffeisen
Revolut confirmed on Wednesday, 16 September 2026, that its application is under review by FINMA. If approved, Switzerland would become the fourth European market where Revolut operates under its own banking licence, following the UK, Lithuania and France. Until now, Revolut’s Swiss operations have run through its Lithuanian entity, UAB Revolut Bank, under the supervision of the European Central Bank.
The company said it plans to invest more than CHF 150 million in Switzerland over the next five years.
Revolut says it already serves 1.3 million customers in Switzerland, part of a global base of more than 80 million users. The Swiss business added nearly a quarter of a million new customers in 2025 alone, and the company has already opened offices in Zurich’s “Finanzcity” district. Sales chief David Tirado has said Revolut is aiming for 40% penetration of the Swiss population.
“Today marks a pivotal moment for Revolut’s European strategy,” said Tirado.
According to a popular financial blog, the strategic target is not smaller fintech rivals like Neon or Yuh, but the incumbent cantonal banks and Raiffeisen, which the outlet describes as still charging comparatively high custody fees and foreign-exchange markups while offering only superficial “pseudo-digitalisation” layered on legacy processes. The one product Revolut has lacked until now is a genuine Swiss IBAN for salary payments and a domestic licence would close that gap.
The scale contrast with Switzerland’s banking establishment is striking. Revolut’s market valuation is close to $120 billion, with the company targeting roughly $200 billion at its planned IPO. By comparison, all of UBS is currently valued at around CHF 130 billion.
Read More: Data Leak Exposes 1320 UBS Employees Facing Layoffs
Data Breach Clouds The Announcement
The licence bid comes just days after Revolut confirmed a significant data-security lapse, one that stemmed from human error rather than a technical hack of its systems.
On 12 September 2026, Revolut confirmed to Reuters that sensitive customer information had been disclosed to an unauthorized third party after an employee fell for fraudulent data requests sent from an email address impersonating a legitimate government agency. The company said the breach affected a “very limited” number of customers, all of whom were notified directly, and stressed that “Revolut systems and customer funds are unaffected.”
According to a local report, the compromised data included customers’ dates of birth, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, and copies of identity documents such as passports and driving licences.
Separately, The Register, citing internal emails it had seen, reported that the exposure extended further still: verification selfies submitted during onboarding, account statements, IBANs, withdrawal records, and full transaction histories, including Bitcoin transaction records for customers who used Revolut’s crypto services. The outlet also noted this is the second time in four years that Revolut has had to notify customers about exposed personal data.
Revolut described the episode as a “sophisticated external impersonation scam,” saying the employee released the data after receiving what looked like an authentic request from a genuine government agency. The company said it immediately blocked the address upon detection and alerted the impersonated agency, law enforcement, data-protection authorities and financial regulators. It has not disclosed which government agency was impersonated, how many customers were affected, or in which market the incident occurred.
A local report called it “probably the most embarrassing mistake of the year” for a company of Revolut’s scale and ambition, framing the failure not as a flaw in its technology but in staff judgment — an employee handed over sensitive data believing it was complying with a legitimate government request.
Whether Swiss regulators and customers weigh the incident the same way may depend on what FINMA’s licence review turns up regarding Revolut’s internal verification controls — precisely the kind of operational safeguard a full banking licence application is designed to scrutinise. The application remains under review, with no confirmed timeline for a decision.
