Revolut received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank charter on September 3, 2026. The British fintech still needs sign-off from the FDIC, the Federal Reserve and the OCC itself before the bank can open.
Key Points
- The OCC granted Revolut conditional approval for a U.S. national bank charter, with three further approvals still outstanding.
- Revolut plans to put roughly $95 million of capital into the new bank and base it in Stamford, Connecticut.
- The proposed bank would offer checking accounts, installment loans, credit cards, foreign exchange and a stablecoin.
- Revolut serves more than 80 million customers worldwide and expects to reach 100 million by mid-2027.
- Launch is planned for 2027, so nothing on the product list reaches U.S. customers this year.
OCC clears Revolut’s charter application with conditions
Revolut confirmed the decision in a company statement describing it as the foundation for a bank it intends to open in 2027. The lender would be based in Stamford, Connecticut, and Revolut plans to inject roughly $95 million of capital into it, U.S. CEO Cetin Duransoy said.
Founder and CEO Nik Storonsky called the decision “an important first step towards establishing the proposed Revolut Bank US.” That phrasing is the accurate one. Conditional approval clears the application in principle and confers no authority to take a deposit.
The OCC has issued conditional approvals to other financial firms this year, including Coinbase’s national trust charter in April. A trust charter carries no deposit-taking power, which is the specific authority Revolut is applying for.
We just received conditional approval from the U.S. OCC for our U.S. national bank charter
— Revolut (@Revolut) September 3, 2026
Three approvals still stand between Revolut and U.S. deposits
Revolut must still secure clearance from the FDIC, sign-off from the Federal Reserve, and final approval from the OCC. Duransoy said the company expects those to follow.
The conditional approval settles the OCC’s view of the application and nothing more. Neither the company statement nor Duransoy’s remarks put a date on the FDIC and Federal Reserve decisions, and neither discloses what conditions the OCC attached.
Three questions are open:
- How long will FDIC deposit insurance review and Federal Reserve holding company review take?
- What specific conditions did the OCC attach to its approval?
- Does the stablecoin Duransoy described launch with the bank or after it?
The published product list, from checking accounts and credit cards through to FDIC-insured deposits and crypto access, applies to a bank that does not exist yet. Current U.S. customers get nothing new today, and no item on that list carries a date earlier than 2027.
Revolut’s licensing run across three continents
Revolut has collected bank licenses in France, Australia and the United Kingdom during 2026, secured a payments license in the UAE, and has a South African bank license application in progress. The company recently launched its Mexican bank and is advancing regulatory work in Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Argentina.
Revolut counts more than 80 million customers globally and has said it expects 100 million by mid-2027, the same window as the proposed American bank’s opening. Its UAE crypto approval followed the same conditional pattern, with in-principle clearance ahead of a final license.
CoinLaw’s Takeaway
A national bank charter would let Revolut hold customer deposits directly and lend against them. That is the economic distance between running an app and running a bank. The $95 million capital commitment is modest against a base of 80 million customers, which points to a bank designed to open narrow and scale as approvals arrive.
Sequencing is the thing to watch. The OCC rules on the charter, the FDIC rules on deposit insurance, and the Federal Reserve rules on holding company supervision, and each answers a different question about the same applicant. The 2027 date assumes all three land without a material condition attached, an assumption Revolut has stated publicly and the three regulators have not.
