Revolut introduces a private banking division with a threshold of £500,000 while aiming for a $200 billion IPO.

      **TL;DR:** Revolut is set to introduce a private banking unit in the UK and Europe this summer, targeting clients with a £500,000 threshold, thereby addressing the mass-affluent gap left by Coutts, which has raised its minimum to £3 million. This move comes as the £4.5 billion-revenue fintech builds its product framework for a universal bank in anticipation of a potential $200 billion IPO on Nasdaq.

      Revolut aims to launch a private banking unit in the UK and selected European countries this summer, as reported by a knowledgeable source. The entry requirement is £500,000, approximately $675,000. Coutts, the longstanding private bank under NatWest, recently increased its minimum asset requirement to £3 million. The disparity between Coutts and Revolut represents not just a niche market but encompasses the mass-affluent demographic of an entire continent, and Revolut is positioning itself to cater to this group.

      The announcement of the private banking unit coincided with Revolut receiving regulatory approval from UK authorities to provide portfolio management, leveraged products, and investment services for high-net-worth and professional clients. This marks significant regulatory progress for the company in a single day, part of a strategy that has been in development for three years.

      Revolut secured its UK banking license in March 2026 after a three-year application process, the lengthiest in recent history, hindered by regulatory concerns regarding its global compliance framework. This license, awarded by the Prudential Regulation Authority, has transitioned Revolut from a payments platform into a fully regulated bank, ensuring customer deposits are covered up to £120,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. It also authorizes consumer credit, mortgages, and lending. This license forms the legal bedrock for future product expansions.

      Without this license, the private banking initiative would not have been feasible. Providing wealth management, portfolio development, and investment guidance to high-net-worth clients necessitates regulatory permissions that Revolut lacked as an electronic money institution. With the recent approvals, it now possesses all the necessary regulatory permissions. The FCA’s green light for complex investment products, announced alongside the private banking news, extends the platform’s services to include leveraged instruments, discretionary portfolio management, and professional tier offerings, beyond its previous basic stock and crypto trading options.

      This sequence is essential: first, the license; second, the regulatory approvals; and third, the private banking unit. Each phase is reliant on the preceding one. Revolut has dedicated three years to creating the regulatory framework necessary to compete with institutions that have developed theirs over three centuries.

      Founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, Revolut initially launched as a prepaid card offering favorable foreign exchange rates. A decade later, it serves more than 70 million customers in over 100 countries, holds banking licenses in the UK, Lithuania, and Mexico, and is pursuing charters in the US and France. In 2025, its revenue reached £4.5 billion, marking a 46% increase from the previous year, with a pre-tax profit of £1.7 billion, up 57%. The company anticipates revenues of $9 billion and profits of $3.5 billion for 2026.

      A secondary share sale in November 2025 valued Revolut at $75 billion. In April 2026, the company revealed that it had discussed IPO valuations ranging from $150 billion to $200 billion with investors. An additional planned secondary sale in the latter half of 2026 is expected to value the company at over $100 billion. Storonsky confirmed that the IPO is around two years away and will take place on Nasdaq rather than in London.

      According to Storonsky, the decision to hold the IPO in the US, rather than the UK, is motivated by greater liquidity, better valuation multiples, and the lower stamp duty of 0.5% on UK share transactions. Establishing a private banking unit that generates recurring revenue from affluent clients aligns perfectly with what public market investors value most in financial firms. The timing of the private banking announcement coinciding with the sharpening IPO timeline is likely not coincidental.

      The UK’s mass-affluent sector is valued at about £9 trillion, surpassing the combined wealth of the ultra-high-net-worth and retail segments. With Coutts increasing its minimum to £3 million, it effectively leaves clients with between £500,000 and £3 million in assets unattended. UBS has set its threshold at £1 million of investable assets. The traditional private banks have shifted their focus upmarket, leaving a significant gap at the lower end of the wealth spectrum, which Revolut aims to address with its £500,000 threshold.

      The prospective clients are not billionaires but rather successful professionals, small business owners, property owners, and early retirees who have accumulated substantial wealth but do not meet the minimums established by traditional private banks. This demographic largely overlaps with current Revolut users who rely