Revolut's 2025 Profit Surge to £1.3B Signals Shift to Primary Banking Hub for Italy's Expats

Revolut's 2025 Profit Surge to £1.3 Billion: What It Means for Italy's Growing User Base

Revolut Bank UAB, the Lithuania-licensed digital bank operating across the European Economic Area, has closed 2025 with financial results that signal a fundamental shift in how the platform functions for users in Italy and across Europe. The company recorded £1.3 billion in net profit (approximately €1.5 billion) for the year ending December 31, 2025, marking a 65% jump from 2024—a milestone that reflects not just growth, but maturation as a regulated financial institution.

For residents and expatriates throughout Italy who rely on Revolut for cross-border payments, everyday spending, and wealth management, this financial performance has direct implications. The company now serves 68.3 million retail users globally, with a specific target of 5 million users in Italy by the end of 2026, and these results fund the platform expansion that reaches you.

The Numbers Behind the Growth

Pre-tax profit climbed 57% to £1.7 billion, while group revenues surged 46% to £4.5 billion. For context, that revenue figure now rivals Italy's mid-sized traditional banks and exceeds the combined annual turnover of several established European challengers. The platform added 16 million new retail customers in 2025 alone, a 30% year-on-year increase, and expanded its business client roster by 33% to 767,000 accounts.

Why This Matters for Italy-Based Users

Deposit safety comes first: Under the Lithuanian banking license, customer funds are protected by the European deposit insurance scheme up to €100,000 per depositor—equivalent to protection offered by Italian banks under the Fondo Interbancario di Tutela dei Depositi. This is critical context as Revolut transitions to operating more like a traditional bank rather than a payment app.

Subscription revenue jumped 67% to £696 million, signaling a shift from transactional to recurring income—relevant for Italian users evaluating premium tiers like Metal or Ultra. More broadly, this tells us Revolut is betting on deeper, stickier customer relationships rather than one-off transactions.

Revolut formally applied for a full U.S. banking license in March 2026 and achieved unrestricted banking status in the United Kingdom on March 11, 2026, ending a five-year regulatory process. For Italian users, this matters because the UK licensing model could serve as a template for potential future EU-level consolidation.

Revenue Breakdown: Eleven Product Lines Above £100 Million

Revolut's growth is no longer concentrated in a single vertical. The company disclosed that 11 distinct product lines each generated more than £100 million in 2025, illustrating diversification well beyond its original foreign-exchange offering.

Card payments climbed 45% to £967 million, driven by higher transaction volumes—total card spend across the network reached $1.7 trillion, up 65% year-on-year. Interest income grew 23% to £967 million, benefiting from rising deposit balances and lending activities. The wealth division, encompassing stocks, commodities, and crypto trading, expanded 31% to £651 million, while foreign-exchange revenue rose 43% to £595 million.

Subscription fees—a critical metric for assessing customer loyalty—reached £696 million, a 67% annual gain. Revolut offers tiered plans starting from a free account up to the Ultra subscription, which costs €45 per month and includes travel insurance, airport lounge access, and enhanced cashback on spending.

Revolut Business, the commercial arm serving SMEs and freelancers, contributed 16% of total revenue and now serves 767,000 accounts, up one-third from 2024. For Italy-based entrepreneurs and digital nomads managing multi-currency invoicing, this segment offers IBAN accounts, API integrations, and expense cards—features that directly compete with traditional Italian business banking packages.

Customer Growth: From Secondary to Primary Account

The platform closed 2025 with 68.3 million retail users worldwide, a net addition of 16 million over the year. Business accounts grew 33% to 767,000. More telling is the rise in customer balances, which jumped 66% to £50.2 billion (approximately €59 billion), and the 120% year-on-year surge in the loan portfolio, now standing at $2.9 billion.

These figures point to a behavioral shift: users are treating Revolut less as a travel or backup card and more as a primary financial hub. This trend is particularly visible among Italy's cross-border workers and residents managing international finances, where multi-currency management and instant FX conversion reduce friction compared to legacy banks.

Revolut's stated ambition is to reach 100 million customers by mid-2027. In Italy specifically, the company aims for 5 million users by the end of 2026. The Italian market has shown strong uptake, according to internal disclosures, signaling that the platform is becoming a genuine alternative to traditional banking rather than a niche fintech offering.

Regulatory Foundations: Full UK Banking License and MiCA Crypto Approval

On March 11, 2026, Revolut Bank UK Ltd received its unrestricted banking license from the UK Prudential Regulation Authority, concluding a five-year application process. The license allows Revolut to offer unlimited deposit accounts, loans, and credit products to its 13 million UK customers, with deposits protected up to £120,000 per person under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme—above the standard £85,000 threshold.

Across the European Economic Area, Revolut continues to operate under a banking license granted by the European Central Bank in December 2018 and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania (Revolut Bank UAB). This "passporting" arrangement permits Revolut to offer regulated banking services—including deposit-taking and lending—in all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. For Italian users, this means your deposits are protected by the same EU framework that covers traditional Italian banks.

Notably, in November 2025, Revolut Digital Assets Europe Ltd secured a MiCA license from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, enabling unified crypto-asset services under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation. This is significant for Italian residents: MiCA means Revolut's crypto trading and custody services now operate under harmonized European rules rather than gray-area payment regulations. For Italian taxpayers, the MiCA licensing provides a clearer regulatory audit trail for declaring crypto holdings and gains on your annual tax return (Quadro RW and RT), though reporting obligations themselves remain unchanged.

In May 2025, Revolut announced a €1.1 billion investment in France and plans to establish a Western European headquarters in Paris, alongside an application for a standalone French banking license. Similar pushes are underway in Belgium and Portugal, where the company opened branches in 2025. These moves indicate Revolut's commitment to the European market and regulatory compliance—reassuring signals for Italian residents evaluating whether to trust the platform with larger account balances.

Global Expansion: Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the U.S.

Revolut's five-year capital plan allocates $13 billion globally to support entry into over 30 new markets by 2030 and the creation of 10,000 jobs.

In Latin America, the company secured banking authorizations in Mexico and Colombia during 2025 and filed for a full banking license in Peru in January 2026. Launches in Argentina and Brazil are in preparation. In the Asia-Pacific region, Revolut obtained a payment license in India in April 2025, established a global tech hub in the Philippines, and is pursuing licenses in Australia and New Zealand.

Revolut will enter Africa via South Africa and has secured a preliminary payment license in the United Arab Emirates. In the United States, the company allocated $500 million to accelerate operations and submitted a formal application for a national banking charter in March 2026.

How Revolut Compares to Italian Banking Alternatives

Revolut's £4.5 billion revenue and £1.3 billion net profit for 2025 position it well among European challengers. Monzo, another UK-based neobank, reported £1.23 billion revenue and £60.5 million pre-tax profit for its year ending March 2025, serving 12.1 million users. Starling Bank posted £714 million revenue and £223 million pre-tax profit, with customer deposits exceeding £12 billion.

Wise, focused on cross-border transfers, recorded approximately $1.9 billion in revenue for its fiscal year ending March 2025, serving 15.5 million customers and holding £21 billion in customer funds. N26, operating primarily in the EEA, projected €440 million revenue for 2024 and reached 4.8 million revenue-generating customers.

For Italian residents, the comparison to homegrown digital alternatives is equally relevant. Platforms like Fineco (approximately 1.5 million users in Italy) and traditional banks' digital offerings (such as Unicredit's app or Intesa Sanpaolo's mobile services) remain popular, but Revolut's multi-currency capabilities and lower cross-border fees continue to attract users who move money internationally or manage multiple-currency income. Revolut's 5 million user target by end-2026 would make it one of Italy's largest digital banking platforms by user count, though in terms of assets under management it remains smaller than legacy institutions.

Practical Implications for Italy-Based Users

Multi-currency utility: With 11 product lines generating significant revenue, the platform's feature set—spanning stock trading, commodities, crypto, travel insurance, and business accounts—continues to expand. Italy-based users managing income or expenses in multiple currencies benefit from interbank FX rates on weekdays up to monthly limits, after which a markup applies.

Loan availability: The 120% growth in Revolut's loan book suggests broader access to personal credit, though lending criteria and geographic availability vary. Italian users should verify eligibility and terms within the app, as unsecured lending remains subject to local credit checks and affordability assessments.

Account structure and IBAN: For most Italian users, Revolut provides an Italian or EEA IBAN depending on account setup. The platform's operational expansion and banking licenses provide confidence that this structure will remain stable, though users should monitor in-app notifications for any changes to terms, IBAN formats, or deposit protection following potential entity consolidations.

What Lies Ahead

Revolut's ambition to hit 100 million customers by mid-2027 implies adding roughly 15 million users every six months—a pace sustained in 2025 but contingent on regulatory approvals, market launches, and continued product innovation. The company is investing heavily in AI-powered financial assistants designed to personalize budgeting, savings, and investment recommendations, a feature set that could deepen engagement among existing users.

For Italy, the target of 5 million users by end-2026 would make Revolut one of the largest digital banking platforms in the country by customer count, though market share by assets or transaction value remains modest compared to incumbents like Intesa Sanpaolo or UniCredit. The company's expansion in France and Central Europe suggests it sees Western Europe—including Italy—as core to its long-term strategy rather than a secondary market.

The full U.S. banking license, if granted, would unlock the world's largest fintech market and provide a template for similar applications in other jurisdictions. Meanwhile, the MiCA crypto license and expanded lending portfolio signal a strategic pivot toward higher-margin, recurring revenue streams—critical for sustaining growth as user acquisition costs rise and regulatory scrutiny intensifies across Europe. For residents in Italy evaluating whether Revolut belongs in your financial toolkit, these results demonstrate both the platform's scaling ambitions and its deepening regulatory legitimacy.