Neobank Revolut says it will open a branch in Romania at the beginning of next year and aims to be in the top 10 banks in terms of assets and the top 3 by the number of clients.
It currently has 3 million clients and evolved from a peer 2 peer transfers app to an inclusive primary bank account in its five years in Romania.
“In terms of assets, we will probably be in the top 10. In terms of the number of clients, we will be in the top 3… We will continue with this full digital model. From this perspective, nothing will change,” said Gabriela Simion, general manager of Revolut Romania, in an interview with Agerpres.
“We are grateful to the almost 3 million customers in Romania for their trust and for helping us to prove that Revolut has really disrupted the financial industry at scale, and revolutionised the way people approach their daily finances.”
“There will be changes in terms of payment processing, in terms of some products and services because there will be a mix of products that will be offered by the local branch, products that will still be offered by the bank in Lithuania… We will localize… the current account with IBAN and payments will be localized,” she added.
Revolut is currently evaluating the full range of products that can be launched in Romania, including mortgage lending.
The bank currently deposits worth 550 million euros. Lending was launched less than a year ago, and the bank has loaned the equivalent of 90 million euros so far.
Revolut marked its 5th anniversary in Romania, its first market by the number of retail customers and the second largest globally, after the UK.
Revolut has a strong customer base in the main cities. In Bucharest it has 540,000 customers, in Iași 100,000, Cluj 92,000, Timișoara 75,000 and Constanța 68,000.
Initially, the financial app appealed to the younger generation, Generation Z and Millennials, who used it while traveling and for payments to ridesharing companies.
During the pandemic, the Revolut customer profile in Romania expanded to older people.
In time, the use case of the Revolut app and cards evolved from a travel financial companion to a primary bank account used by Romanian customers for daily money management needs and personal budgeting.
Payments of over 1.7 billion euros were made by Revolut users in the local market.
