Revolut US bank charter: one approval down, three still to go

Revolut got a headline on Wednesday, not a bank. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted conditional approval for a Revolut US bank charter, six months after the company filed in March. Three more sign-offs stand between that letter and the first American deposit.

What conditional leaves out

The remaining gates are the FDIC, which decides on deposit insurance, the Federal Reserve, and the OCC again for final authorisation. None of them is a formality for an applicant that plans to trade crypto inside the bank, and the company is aiming for the first half of 2027 rather than for this year.

The bank itself starts small. Revolut has proposed an operation in Stamford, Connecticut, with roughly $95 million of initial capital and about 160 staff. Set that beside the 80 million customers the group serves worldwide and the shape of the plan is clear enough: the parent is large, the American bank is a startup inside it.

“Conditional OCC approval is an important first step towards establishing the proposed Revolut Bank US. It gives us the foundation to build in the world's largest financial market and bring the full Revolut experience to millions of Americans.”

— Nik Storonsky, founder and CEO of Revolut, Incrypted, 4 September 2026

Quote source: Incrypted, 4 September 2026

A charter is also a stablecoin licence

The part that matters for this audience is what a charter now unlocks. Under the GENIUS Act, passed in July 2025, issuing a payment stablecoin in the United States is limited to permitted entities, and a national bank is one route in. The OCC has proposed the implementing rules covering reserves, redemptions, audits, custody and supervision. So Revolut's bank application is also, in effect, its stablecoin application.

What the company has not said is everything a reader would want to know about that token: which currency it settles in, which network it runs on, how the reserves are structured, when it launches. A plan with no reserve model attached is a stated intention, not a product.

What changes for a customer

For a customer, the difference between an app and a bank is specific. Deposits at a national bank carry FDIC insurance up to $250,000 per account. The bank plugs directly into Federal Reserve payment rails instead of renting access from a partner. Alongside that sit the ordinary products, checking accounts, credit cards, instalment loans and currency conversion, and next to them crypto trading inside a federally supervised institution.

That combination is the trend of this year rather than a Revolut idea. Circle's president told Congress this week that dollar stablecoins extend American monetary reach, and Kraken's parent joined SoFi's round-the-clock dollar network the same week. Crypto firms are buying their way into bank plumbing while a bank-shaped fintech buys its way into crypto, and both arrive at the same address.

The date to hold onto is the FDIC decision. Deposit insurance is the approval that has stopped fintech charters before, and until it lands, Revolut Bank US is a Connecticut address with a capital plan attached.

Nothing here should be taken as financial advice; treat it as information to consider.