The British company wants to become a leading direct bank in Germany, and the number of private customers is expected to more than double by 2026. The key is a technical innovation.
The British digital bank Revolut wants to convince more customers in this country with a German bank connection. As of this week, new customers received a German IBAN when opening an account, the company said. Existing customers followed in the next few months. “This brings us a big step closer to our goal of becoming a house bank,” said Christoph Kuban, General Manager at Revolut Germany.
According to its own information, Revolut now has two million private customers in the Federal Republic. By 2026, the number is expected to more than double to five million. In the long term, we want to be one of the leading online and direct banks in this country.
Problems with daily banking transactions
Revolut, headquartered in London, says it has more than 45 million customers worldwide and has been operating in Germany with a Lithuanian full banking license since 2022. Customers have therefore previously had to use a Lithuanian IBAN, which can be an obstacle in daily banking transactions – for example if authorities, employers or other companies did not accept Revolut bank details (“IBAN discrimination”).
Revolut now also wants to expand its product offering in Germany in order to become attractive as a house bank. This fall, the company plans to launch a daily money with daily interest as well as free savings plans for index funds (ETFs) for its own app. In the future, Revolut also wants to offer credit cards, overdrafts and real estate financing in this country, it said. So far there are only debit cards.
Tough competition for direct customers
The company, which has a branch in Berlin, employs around 250 people in Germany and over 10,000 worldwide. Revolut is supervised by the European Central Bank and the German financial regulator Bafin. Customer deposits are further protected up to 100,000 euros by the Lithuanian deposit protection fund, it said.
In this country, Revolut faces tough competition from other neobanks such as the smartphone bank N26, which is much larger in Germany, and the online broker Trade Republic. The market is also competitive among the established direct banks: the leading competitors here are ING Deutschland, which has more than nine million customers in Germany alone, and Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB).
Source: Stern
