Revolut has received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national bank, bringing the London-based fintech closer to offering federally supervised banking services in the United States.
The decision, disclosed by Revolut in a Sept. 3 statement, does not immediately authorize the company to begin operating a U.S. bank. Revolut must first meet the OCC’s conditions before it can receive final approval and open for business. If it completes that process, the charter would give the company a federal route to offer products including deposits, loans, credit cards and stablecoin-related services to U.S. customers.
Nik Storonsky, Revolut’s chief executive officer and co-founder, described the approval as an initial step in the company’s U.S. expansion. Revolut already serves more than 80 million retail customers globally, according to the company, and has previously secured banking licenses in France, Australia and the United Kingdom.
A federal pathway for Revolut’s U.S. plans
A national bank charter would place Revolut under OCC supervision rather than requiring the company to assemble a separate patchwork of state banking permissions. That could give the company a more direct structure for building nationwide banking products, although state consumer-protection, money-transmission and other requirements can continue to apply depending on the service.
For a company whose core products blend app-based payments, foreign exchange, card services and digital-asset offerings, the U.S. banking charter process carries practical limits as well as opportunities. Final approval typically requires an applicant to demonstrate sufficient capital, management controls, compliance systems and operational readiness before it can begin taking deposits or making loans.
The conditional designation means Revolut has entered that proving phase. The OCC can impose requirements covering governance, risk management, anti-money-laundering procedures, cybersecurity and the business plan submitted with the application. A conditional approval can lapse or be withdrawn if the applicant does not satisfy those obligations.
Revolut did not disclose in its statement when it expects to complete the conditions or launch a U.S. banking operation.
Crypto firms increasingly seek national charters
Revolut’s approval comes during a more active period for new national-bank applications involving cryptocurrency and financial-technology companies. The OCC has issued conditional approvals over the past year to Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple and Circle, according to the agency’s charter activity records cited by Revolut.
Those companies occupy different segments of the crypto market. Coinbase operates a large digital-asset trading platform; Paxos and Circle are stablecoin issuers; BitGo provides custody services; and Ripple develops payment technology and is linked to the XRP ecosystem. Their interest in federal banking status reflects a push to bring custody, payments and stablecoin activity under a single primary federal banking regulator.
Last month, the OCC also granted conditional approval to World Liberty Financial, a venture backed by members of President Donald Trump’s family. That decision attracted scrutiny because of the family’s political ties and the administration’s role in appointing financial regulators, though an OCC conditional approval remains subject to the same process of meeting supervisory conditions before a bank can open.
Jonathan Gould, the Comptroller of the Currency, has argued that companies using cryptocurrency and other emerging technologies should have “a pathway to become federally supervised banks.” The OCC has received 40 de novo, or newly formed, bank charter applications since 2025, Gould has said. The agency has approved 21 and denied two, while the remaining applications appear to be pending, withdrawn or otherwise unresolved.
Crypto-focused companies account for 23 of those 40 applications, based on the figures provided in the materials. That concentration suggests that firms previously operating through state money-transmitter licenses, trust charters or partnerships with established banks are increasingly testing whether direct federal supervision can support their business models.
Stablecoins move closer to bank oversight
Stablecoins sit near the center of this charter wave. A stablecoin is a digital token designed to maintain a fixed value, often one U.S. dollar, by holding reserves such as cash and short-term government securities. Issuers have traditionally operated outside the conventional insured-deposit model, even where their reserves are held with regulated financial institutions.
A national bank charter would not automatically make a stablecoin equivalent to a federally insured bank deposit. Deposit insurance, where applicable, is administered separately through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The distinction will matter for customers assessing whether funds held in a Revolut account, a stablecoin wallet or another payment product carry different protections.
For Revolut, the ability to combine banking products with stablecoin-related services could create a more integrated U.S. offering than a standalone card or payments app. The company could potentially connect dollar accounts, lending, cards, payments and digital-asset transfers within a federally supervised entity, subject to the final limits of its charter and any additional regulatory permissions.
That model also creates a higher compliance burden. Banking regulators expect institutions to monitor transaction risks, protect customer data, maintain capital buffers and establish controls against fraud and illicit finance. Crypto services add complications around wallet screening, blockchain analytics, token liquidity and the custody of private keys.
Conditional approvals separate plans from operating banks
The growing list of approvals should not be read as evidence that each applicant has already become a fully functioning national bank. Conditional approval marks progress, but the decisive stage is converting that authorization into an operational institution that meets the OCC’s requirements.
For customers, the most useful details will be the products ultimately offered under the bank charter, the entity holding customer funds, whether balances qualify for deposit insurance, and how stablecoin reserves or custody arrangements are structured. Those facts determine protections more directly than a company’s charter announcement.
Revolut’s approval places one of the world’s largest fintech apps among the companies seeking to bring crypto-adjacent financial services inside the U.S. national banking system. Whether it joins the small group that reaches final approval will depend on its ability to turn a global consumer platform into a U.S. bank that satisfies federal supervisory standards.
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