{"id":820377,"date":"2026-07-24T07:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/820377\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T07:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:28:16","slug":"revolut-164-billion-upstart-could-send-chills-through-australias-big-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/820377\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolut: $164 billion upstart could send chills through Australia\u2019s big four"},"content":{"rendered":"

A finance expert believes Australia<\/a>\u2019s newest bank could pose a credible challenge to the nation\u2019s big four if it gets one thing right.<\/p>\n

Revolut was approved for an Australian banking licence this week<\/a>, allowing the financial institution to offer products such as savings accounts and loans.<\/p>\n

\"Canary<\/p>\n

Revolut\u2019s headquarters in London.\u00a0iStock<\/p>\n

The company launched on our shores as a personal finance app six years ago and has since amassed about a million users in Australia.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s valuation soared to $US115 billion ($164.78 billion) this week after an employee share sale, according to financial news outlet Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

Macquarie University finance<\/a> associate professor Di\u00a0Bu said the key challenge for the bank will be gaining trust in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers may be comfortable using Revolut for travel or international payments, but moving their salary, savings, direct debits and mortgage requires a much greater level of confidence,\u201d Bu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRevolut still needs to demonstrate the reliability, customer support and long-term stability that people expect from their main bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I would describe Revolut as a credible specialist challenger today, rather than an immediate fifth major bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIts longer-term threat will depend on whether it can move from owning one part of the customer relationship such as travel or payments to becoming the institution where customers receive their salary, hold substantial deposits and borrow money, particularly through mortgages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four banks dominate the sector in Australia: Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, NAB and ANZ.<\/p>\n

Du said Revolut\u2019s initial focus would likely be on particular parts of the big four\u2019s business, rather than across the entire banking market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The much harder challenge would be breaking into the big four\u2019s core businesses including mortgages, primary salary accounts and major business-banking relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is probably best placed to compete in areas such as international payments, foreign exchange, travel spending, digital savings, credit cards and personal loans,\u201d Bu said.<\/p>\n

\"Debit<\/p>\n

The big four banks dominate Australia\u2019s finance sector.\u00a0Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers can move these activities to Revolut without changing their mortgage or completely leaving their existing bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Revolut could capture a larger share of customers\u2019 everyday spending and financial activity, even while remaining a secondary bank for many people.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidential mortgages are central to the Australian banking model, they represent a large part of the major banks\u2019 lending businesses and often anchor the broader customer relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt present, Revolut does not appear to offer mortgages in Australia, so it is not yet competing in the part of the market that matters most to the major banks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A finance expert believes Australia\u2019s newest bank could pose a credible challenge to the nation\u2019s big four if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-820377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}