Revolut launches personal loans in the UK, its first credit product as a licensed British bank
The London-based fintech is rolling out unsecured loans to a small group of its 14 million UK customers first, and says a credit card and, eventually, mortgages will follow.
Revolut has started offering unsecured personal loans in the UK, its first credit product since becoming a fully licensed British bank. The loans range from £2,000 to £25,000 with APRs of 6.9% to 29.3%, repayable over one to five years, Finextra reported.
UK chief executive Francesca Carlesi told Reuters on 27 October 2026 that the company will begin with a selected group of customers and expand to all of its 14 million UK customers over the coming months.
The product
According to This is Money, the 6.9% rate is the representative APR on loans between £7,500 and £25,000, and there is no fee for early repayment. Applicants must be UK residents aged at least 18 and must have held a Revolut account for more than 30 days. Funds are paid into the Revolut account, and the loan is managed in the app.
"We've built a transparent and simple loan process with near-instant funds on approval, no fee for early repayment and competitive rates," Carlesi said. She added that customers can see how repayments fit alongside their budgeting, spending and investing in one place.
Bigger ambitions
Carlesi described the loans as a step in a larger shift. "We want to transition from being a very successful everyday spending app and disrupting the market, to become effectively the primary bank of choice for everybody in the UK," she told Reuters.
Revolut plans to launch a credit card in the near future and eventually to enter the UK mortgage market, she said. Those are areas dominated by NatWest, Lloyds, Barclays, Santander UK and HSBC.
How Revolut plans to manage the risk
Lending is riskier than payments and subscriptions, Revolut's core businesses. Without the decades of customer data held by traditional banks, Revolut has added data bought from external providers to its credit checks, Carlesi said. She said the company is confident in its credit analysis, will grow lending gradually and has no target for the size of its UK loan book.
Revolut eventually plans to pass much of the risk to investors through securitisation and to keep its loan-to-deposit ratio close to 6%, which Reuters noted is far lower than at other banks.
The launch comes as UK households face continuing cost-of-living pressure, a soft labour market and rising inflation, which Reuters noted could affect borrowers' ability to repay.
Context: a $115bn bank looking for revenue
Founded in 2015 by Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, London-based Revolut serves more than 80 million customers worldwide and has a private valuation of $115 billion, according to Reuters. It already offers unsecured loans in some other countries, but the UK is one of its largest markets. Finextra reports that Revolut secured its full UK banking licence earlier this year after a long mobilisation period.
Reuters also noted the questions Revolut still faces: revenue per customer is well below that of traditional banks, and fewer customers use it as their main account. Lending is a standard way to raise income per customer, which explains the timing.
What it means for European founders and investors
For fintech founders, Revolut's move shows the usual path from payments app to bank: build a large user base on low-cost products, win a licence, then add credit. The licence is the turning point, because it allows a fintech to lend from its own deposits rather than through partners.
For lenders and fintechs competing in UK consumer credit, a well-known app with 14 million UK customers offering near-instant loans raises the bar on speed and user experience. This is Money notes that Revolut's headline rate is slightly above the best deals on the market but well below the rate of rival Monzo on smaller loans.
For investors, the key metrics will be credit losses and how fast the loan book grows once the product is open to all customers. Revolut's cautious launch and its securitisation plan suggest it knows that lending mistakes can be expensive. Europreneurs Media also tracks other London fintech funding, including Cognitive Credit's $40m round.
Spotted an error? Email contact@europreneursmedia.com and we'll correct it. See our corrections policy and editorial standards.
