Bitcoin-friendly startup Revolut received a European banking license

British fintech startup Revolut announced it has received a license to provide banking services in Europe. The application was approved by the European Central Bank, the company said.

? Today, we’ve had our application for a European banking license approved. https://t.co/ho22TQbtfm

– Revolut (@RevolutApp) December 13, 2018

Initially, Revolut customers in the jurisdictions with which the company works will be able to deposit up to 100,000 euros insured through the European Deposit Insurance System. In the future, the company plans to introduce measures to protect against overdraft overdraft, as well as the provision of traditional individual and corporate loans.

Testing of the new license will begin next year in Lithuania and will gradually be extended to the rest of Europe.

In the commentary of EU-Startups, the founder and CEO of Revolut Nikolai Potsky said:

“Having secured with a banking license, as well as advancing with our plans to launch securities free trading from commissions and enter five new international markets, we justify our reputation as“ Amazon Banking ”. Our vision is simple: one application with tens of millions of users, which, at optimal cost and technology, makes it possible to manage every aspect of our financial life. ”

Founded in 2015, the startup has attracted about $ 340 million of investments so far, which raised the company's capitalization to $ 1.7 billion . Its client base has more than 3 million users who have the opportunity to spend money and send international money transfers at real exchange rates, control budgets and make savings.

In 2017, Revolut added support for cryptocurrency. Initially, these were Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, and in May of this year , Ripple and Bitcoin Cash were added to the application.

In July, Revolut announced the creation of a trading platform for residents of the European Union following the example of the American stock and cryptocurrency trading application Robinhood, and earlier it was reported about plans to launch a joint project with Qiwi in Russia.