Europe’s biggest neobank wants to take over the world

THE PANDEMIC could have been terminal for Revolut, a firm set up in 2015 to help travellers avoid hefty foreign-exchange fees. Instead its latest annual results, released on June 21st, suggest the London-based digital bank is thriving. Despite slashing its marketing budget, it gained 4.5m customers in 2020, bringing the total to 14.5m. Its revenues grew by 57% to £261m ($362m); it was profitable in the last two months of 2020. A $580m fundraising round, completed in July, made it one of Europe’s most valuable private fintechs, worth $5.5bn.It helps that the firm has diversified away from colourful debit cards and multi-currency e-wallets to include services such as stock and cryptocurrency trading, business accounts and payments, and even credit. Today interchange fees from debit cards and the like represent just 36% of its revenues, little more than what it earns from selling subscriptions to perks like cheap phone insurance.