The Bank of England has required an external examination of the procedures Revolut uses to clear new financial products, according to reporting by the Financial Times. The central bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) issued a section 166 order earlier this year, shortly after the fintech obtained its full UK banking licence in March.
The review seeks to test the strength of Revolut’s internal systems and risk controls as the company accelerates launches of new offerings.
A section 166 measure, commonly known as a skilled-person review, obliges a regulated firm to engage independent experts—typically accounting or legal specialists—to inspect its arrangements.
Those advisers produce a report containing recommendations for any enhancements required.
Regulators treat such reviews as a means of assembling evidence; if material shortcomings surface, the authority may pursue penalties or other enforcement steps for rule breaches.
Neither Revolut nor the Bank of England provided comment to the Financial Times on the matter.
The timing coincides with Revolut’s first major use of its newly unrestricted UK banking authorization.
After years of operating under tight deposit limits during an extended mobilization phase, the firm can now take protected deposits at scale and enter lending markets long dominated by traditional high-street institutions.
It has already begun offering unsecured personal loans in Britain, with amounts ranging from £2,000 to £25,000.Revolut’s scale makes the supervisory focus noteworthy.
Founded a little more than a decade ago, the group now serves more than 80 million customers and carries a valuation of $115 billion, exceeding that of three of the four largest UK high-street banks.
Management has set an ambitious target of operating in 70 countries by 2030, up from roughly 40 today.
The UK licence was viewed as essential both for domestic deposit-taking and lending and for supporting that broader international expansion.
The company’s product-development culture has drawn regulatory attention before.
Chief executive Nik Storonsky has encouraged staff to operate with considerable autonomy, describing empowered teams as “self-guided missiles” that pursue objectives with limited central oversight.
An internal “new bets” programme allows small groups to build and launch offerings semi-independently.
That approach has produced a diversified set of revenue streams, yet it has also generated friction with supervisors.
In 2025 the European Central Bank temporarily restricted Revolut’s European arm from introducing new products after identifying deficiencies in its approval processes.
The ECB required a third-party review of the risk, compliance and legal functions that govern launches in the region, and imposed additional limits on activity outside the European Economic Area.
Separately, the Bank of England had earlier delayed full UK authorisation in part because of concerns that Revolut’s risk controls might not keep pace with the rapid growth of its overseas operations.
The present section 166 review does not, on the basis of the reporting, indicate that the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has already identified specific breaches or imposed fresh product restrictions.
Its practical impact will depend on the findings and on whether any recommended remediation slows the pace of new launches or the firm’s overall expansion. For a Fintech focused company that has repeatedly positioned rapid product innovation as a core competitive advantage, the exercise represents continued supervisory attention to the balance between growth and control.
