The authorisation follows an assessment by French banking regulator the ACPR and the European Central Bank. It will allow Revolut to broaden the services available to its approximately 7m French customers, including a wider range of lending, mortgage and savings products.
The licence also strengthens regulatory oversight of a business that has expanded rapidly across Europe and beyond.
Revolut has made France an increasingly important part of its continental expansion plans. The company has committed to invest €1bn in western Europe, recruit around 600 employees and establish its European headquarters in Paris.
Until now, much of Revolut’s European banking activity has operated under the licence it obtained in Lithuania in 2018, with supervision shared between Lithuanian authorities and the ECB.
French regulators had encouraged Revolut to secure a domestic licence, reflecting both the scale of its French customer base and the growing importance of the fintech within the country’s financial services market.
The approval comes despite previous regulatory scrutiny of Revolut’s risk and compliance procedures. European authorities had imposed restrictions on some product launches amid concerns that its expansion was moving ahead of internal controls.
The French authorisation follows Revolut receiving a full UK banking licence in March after several years of discussions with regulators. Australia has also subsequently granted the company a full banking licence.
Revolut now operates across around 40 countries and claims 75mn customers globally, with a stated ambition to reach 100mn.
Its growth has increasingly moved the company beyond its original proposition of low-cost international transfers and flexible current accounts. Revolut now offers services spanning savings, investments, cryptocurrency and broader banking products.
The fintech reported a 57 per cent increase in pre-tax profit last year to £1.7bn, on revenues of £4.5bn.
Founder and chief executive Nik Storonsky has indicated that an IPO is unlikely before 2028. In the meantime, a secondary share sale is expected to value Revolut at approximately $115bn, underlining the scale of investor expectations surrounding its transformation from fintech challenger into international bank.