Revolut seeks de novo banking charter with OCC

Revolut is the latest crypto-friendly firm to apply for a U.S. banking charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Financial Times was first to report on Thursday.

The filing comes shortly after Revolut dropped plans in January to acquire a U.S. lender and instead sought a de novo banking license, given the OCC's accelerated approval pathway that has already given conditional approval to several stablecoin issuers to become banks.

In November, Revolut closed a share sale at a $75 billion valuation, a 66% increase from its $45 billion valuation in 2024.

The move comes amid a sea change in banking oversight in the U.S. Perhaps most notably, on Wednesday, Kraken became the first crypto native firm to receive a "skinny" master account with the Federal Reserve, giving it direct access to core U.S. payment systems.

According to FT, there were 14 OCC de novo banking applications last year, "almost as many as the total for the preceding four years" under the decidedly more hardline Biden administration.

Revolut has previously said expanding in the U.S. market is core to its growth strategy. "This is a major milestone in our mission to build the world’s first truly global bank," the company posted to X on Thursday.

The firm drafted a preliminary application for the FDIC and California regulators in 2021, without formally submitting. Its current banking services are provided by Lead Bank, Revolut said.

While Revolut’s statement doesn't mention stablecoins directly, a banking charter could help the firm expand its stablecoin offerings in the U.S. under the guidance of the GENIUS Act, which provided a framework for stablecoin businesses when enacted in July 2025.

In February, the Financial Conduct Authority selected Revolut to join other participants in a fiat-pegged stablecoin sandbox payments trial.