Revolut has taken a major step toward operating as a fully licensed bank in the United States. On September 3, 2026, the company said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted preliminary conditional approval for a national bank charter that would allow it to form Revolut Bank US, National Association.
The decision does not let the firm start taking deposits or making loans tomorrow.
Conditional approval is an organizational green light.
Revolut still must satisfy OCC conditions, obtain deposit insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, secure Federal Reserve approval, and receive the OCC’s final authorization before the bank can open.
Company executives say they remain on schedule for a launch in the first half of 2027.
Founder and chief executive Nik Storonsky called the OCC decision an important first move toward building Revolut Bank US and delivering the firm’s full product set in the world’s largest financial market.
US chief executive Cetin Duransoy praised the regulator’s process as both thorough and relatively fast, saying it kept the 2027 timetable intact.
The proposed bank would be based in Stamford, Connecticut. Revolut plans to put about $95 million of capital into the institution and staff it with roughly 160 employees at launch.
Products under discussion include checking accounts, installment loans, credit cards, foreign-exchange services, and multicurrency features that draw on the group’s existing operations in Europe and Latin America.
Officials have also said the bank is expected to offer access to stablecoins and other digital assets once remaining approvals are in place.
The OCC letter notes that retail foreign-exchange activity is not covered by the preliminary approval and would require a separate supervisory non-objection.
A national charter would change how Revolut serves American customers. Today it relies on partner banks.
A federally chartered institution could hold FDIC-insured deposits, originate credit itself, and operate under one federal framework across all 50 states rather than through a patchwork of state and partner arrangements.
That shift is central to Revolut’s stated goal of becoming a single global banking platform.
The US application was filed in March 2026 after the company moved away from an earlier idea of buying an existing American lender.
The faster de novo path reflected a more active OCC pipeline for new charters.
Revolut serves more than 80 million customers worldwide and has been stacking licenses elsewhere, including recent banking authorizations in France, Australia, and the United Kingdom, a Mexican bank launch, and work underway in several other Latin American markets.
Management still aims to reach 100 million customers by mid-2027.
Conditional approval is only one leg of a three-regulator process.
Capital, governance, systems, and compliance must still meet pre-opening tests. The OCC has reserved the right to change or withdraw the preliminary decision if circumstances deteriorate before final approval. Even so, the September ruling is the clearest signal yet that Revolut’s US bank is moving from application to construction.