Revolut has said the delayed acquisition of its UK banking licence is due to recent turmoil in the global financial ecosystem.

Revolut secured an EU banking licence through Lithuania in 2018 and a full banking licence from the European Central Bank in 2021 but has still not received its UK banking licence, having filed an application with the Financial Conduct Authority in January 2021.

Revolut recently said it expected to receive its banking licence “within weeks”, with chief executive Nik Storonsky having now told the Financial Times the licence hold up is “really not us”.

“It is generally the banking crisis we see at the moment that makes regulators extra cautious,” he said.

Revolut recently recorded £26.3 million in profits in the 12-months ended 31 December 2021, with revenue tripling from £220 million in 2020 to £626 million.

Recent turmoil in the banking sector has seen the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) after a bank run, while Credit Suisse failed and was forced into an ‘emergency acquisition’ by rival UBS after its biggest shareholder Saudi National Bank said it could not buy more shares in Credit Suisse on regulatory grounds.

In a bid to manage the flight of shareholders to larger encumbents which resulted in light of SVB's demise, US regulators recently seized the assets of First Republic Bank and sold them to JPMorgan Chase after it revealed more than $100 billion in outflows in the first quarter of 2023.

Pacific Western Bank has also been hit by a 50 per cent slump in shares recently, with Bloomberg News reporting that the bank may be exploring a potential sale.

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