Revolut wants to offer real estate loans in France

“We have a good product, we have good dynamics (...) Our objective is really to bet heavily on France,” declared its director in charge of growth, Antoine Le Nel, on the sidelines of the 7th edition of the Choose France summit, chaired by Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles.

With three million customers, France is today the second largest market for Revolut, behind the United Kingdom. The British fintech gains around 100.000 customers per month in France.

To continue this development, it has planned an amount of around 100 million euros, covering the hiring of several dozen employees, investments in advertising but also the expansion of its range of products.

Revolut is in fact working on the launch next year to its customers of the French's favorite savings product, the Livret A, but also of a fully online and automated real estate loan, which will first be tested in Ireland and in Lithuania.

“We want to get closer to France,” underlined Mr. Le Nel. From there to planning a future IPO in Paris? The director of global growth prefers not to comment.

The regulator in his home country, the United Kingdom, has still not exempted him from a banking license. Revolut has activities in Europe thanks to this precious sesame obtained in Lithuania and branches in its main countries, such as in France, which allow it to issue accounts with local Iban.

It saw its turnover exceed one billion euros over one year in 2022 (+45%) and remained above the break-even point (7 million euros in net profit).

The company, however, was slow to publish its figures. Last year's net profit, not yet published, should be more than 300 million euros, and that of 2024 "even more important", according to Mr. Le Nel.

The online banking market is highly contested in France, with numerous subsidiaries of traditional banks such as Boursorama (Société Générale) or Fortuneo (Arkéa).