“We want to be in the national top three, it’s an ambition,” Rúben Germano told Lusa, expressing confidence that Revolut will become the third largest bank in Portugal by the number of clients within three years.
Until now, Revolut operated in Portugal under the free provision of services regime from Lithuania. From now on, it will have a branch in Portugal, still dependent on the Lithuanian bank (Revolut Bank UAB, hence deposits remain protected by the Lithuanian deposit guarantee fund).
Currently, Revolut has 1.8 million private clients in Portugal, and according to Rúben Germano, with the Portuguese IBAN (bank account number) and the new associated services, “the pace will accelerate.”
The head of Revolut in Portugal explained that with the Portuguese branch and IBAN, access to services such as salary domiciliation and direct debits is facilitated (currently, some companies do not allow these services with foreign IBAN accounts), which he identifies as fundamental for the Portuguese banking client.
With these changes, Revolut is now integrated into the Portuguese payment system, interfacing with Multibanco and MB Way systems.
“This is extremely important; with the Portuguese IBAN, we will be present in more moments of the client’s daily life, becoming the client’s main account,” he said, considering that until now, without these financial products, Revolut was unable to be.
Revolut will also launch a deposit account with daily interest.
However, the migration process of existing clients to the Portuguese branch will be gradual over the coming weeks, and some features (such as Multibanco) will only be available once the migration is completed, Revolut stated.
When asked about mortgage loans, Rúben Germano said there are no forecasts for Revolut to make such loans in Portugal. The group is only providing these loans in Ireland and Lithuania, assessing how the market behaves before deciding whether to expand to other countries.
“At this moment, we are still learning with the product. We do not have it planned [for Portugal] yet. But we know it’s an essential product in the Portuguese market. I think when we have all the products that we will launch in this month and a half, it’s only this [mortgage credit] that we’re missing,” he said.
Regarding businesses, Revolut is not yet working with that client segment in Portugal.
Revolut does not disclose the business volume and net profit of its operation in Portugal, nor the investment made in Portugal.
The Revolut group had profits of 934 million euros in 2024, more than double the 395 million euros in 2023.
The bank, which defines itself as a ‘financial super app,’ has over 55 million clients and more than 10,000 employees worldwide.
In Portugal, Revolut has 1,300 employees.
