Revolut opens for business in Australia

Revolut the would-be one-stop shop for money has announced that it’s open for business in Australia. Revolut offers a host of services to its business customers, including multi-currency accounts, cards and spending management tools, payment gateways, links and QR codes as well as low-cost currency exchange and API connectivity.

Revolut is also offering incentives to its marketing affiliates and introducers to encourage them to bring Australian business through the door.

They key driver is that opening a Revolut Business account should be straightforward and can be done online.

Grow and scale

Currently, the firm offers its Grow and Scale account types, for which it is charging  AUD 25.0 and AUD 100 per month respectively.

Its Enterprise business account will follow shortly

Revolut is very much playing to its strengths by offering low or no-cost money transfers and currency exchange in the Australian market. Transfers or payments between accounts made in Australian dollars will incur no fees for example.

Aiming for a banking license

Revolut is interested in obtaining an Australian banking license and began discussions with regulators back in August 2022.

Banking services in Australia are effectively an oligopoly with the big four banks controlling 80% of the market between them.

Revolut Australia’s head of business James Gibsdon was quoted as saying:

“Australian SMEs have been largely under-served when it comes to FX and anything international”

Matt Baxby, Revolut Australia CEO commented:

 “What we hear a lot from them is that they really want a solution that allows them to do business overseas”

He added:

“We have a lot of European customers who have Australian subsidiaries and vice versa, so we think we’re going to get quite a lot of traction with that.”

Revolute banking plans

Not everything at Revolut is going to plan however.

Revolut’s application for a UK banking license appears to have stalled, with some press reports suggesting that the Bank of England may reject the application completely, over concerns about its balance sheet and finances.

The firm’s previous auditors are said to have cast doubt over what they called the “completeness and occurrence” of hundreds of millions of pounds of revenues.

The application made via the PRA and the Bank of England has been ongoing for two years. Should the UK application be rejected, Revolut’s existing business would not be affected.

However, it won’t be able to offer wider banking services, such as mortgages and personal loans, to its fast-growing UK client base.

Just two years ago, Revolut raised £800 million pounds, in a funding round that valued the business at $33.0 billion (£26.60 billion).

However one of its biggest shareholders, the fund manager Schroders, recently trimmed its valuation of the business to just $18.0 billion (£14.50 billion).