The loans range from £2,000 to £25,000, with repayment periods of one to five years and annual percentage rates (APRs) between 6.9% and 29.3%. The product is initially available to a limited group of customers, with a phased rollout planned over several months.
The launch follows Revolut’s transition to full UK banking operations in March 2026, when the Prudential Regulation Authority lifted the restrictions on its banking licence. That approval opened the door to a wider range of regulated services, including lending, allowing the company to compete more directly with NatWest, Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and Santander’s UK business.
What Do Revolut’s Personal Loans Offer?
Customers can apply for loans through the Revolut app, with approved funds typically transferred within minutes. The company says borrowers can repay early without fees and manage their repayments alongside their spending, budgeting and investments within the same application.
UK Chief Executive Francesca Carlesi said the product was designed to reduce friction and simplify borrowing. She added that integrating credit into Revolut’s existing ecosystem would help customers understand how repayments fit into their day-to-day finances.
However, the advertised APR range is wide. The rate available to an individual borrower will depend on their circumstances and Revolut’s credit assessment, meaning the lowest advertised rate will not be available to everyone.
The gradual rollout also allows Revolut to expand lending without immediately making the product available across its entire UK customer base. The company has not established a target for the size of its British loan book.
Investor Takeaway
The launch gives Revolut a new source of interest income, but its commercial contribution will depend on customer uptake, loan pricing and credit performance rather than the size of its existing user base alone.
Why Is Revolut Expanding Into Lending Now?
Revolut’s banking licence removed a major structural barrier to expanding beyond payments, foreign exchange and subscription services. The company can now develop a broader range of banking products through its UK banking entity rather than relying exclusively on its earlier operating model.
FinanceFeeds previously examined how Revolut’s UK banking launch created the foundation for lending and other regulated financial services. Personal loans represent the first major step in translating that regulatory approval into a new consumer-credit offering.
The move also addresses a commercial challenge facing digital financial platforms: generating more revenue from existing customers. Revolut has built a large user base through payments and app-based financial services, but lending provides another way to deepen customer relationships and generate recurring income.
The company has indicated that credit cards will follow in the UK, with mortgages a longer-term ambition. Together, these products would broaden Revolut’s exposure to conventional banking revenue and put it into more direct competition with high-street lenders across several major consumer-finance categories.
How Will Revolut Manage Credit Risk?
Expanding into unsecured lending introduces risks that differ from those associated with payments and foreign exchange. Borrowers can default, unemployment can weaken repayment capacity, and rapid loan growth can expose weaknesses in credit assessments before they become visible in reported financial results.
Carlesi has said Revolut supplements its underwriting with information from external providers because it does not possess the same decades of customer spending and repayment histories as traditional banks. The company says it is confident in its credit analysis, but the performance of the new portfolio will ultimately provide a more meaningful test.
Revolut also intends to manage its exposure by eventually securitising much of its loan portfolio. Carlesi said the company aims to keep its UK loan-to-deposit ratio near 6%, substantially below the levels typical of traditional lenders. The approach would limit the proportion of deposits deployed into loans while allowing the company to develop a credit business.
FinanceFeeds has previously examined Revolut’s low loan-to-deposit ratio and the scope it leaves for lending growth. A larger loan book could increase interest income, but it would also introduce greater exposure to defaults, underwriting decisions and economic conditions.
Investor Takeaway
Will Regulatory Scrutiny Affect the Expansion?
Revolut’s move into credit comes as regulators continue examining the systems and controls supporting its rapid product expansion. On October 27, the Financial Times reported that the Bank of England had ordered an independent review of Revolut’s product-approval processes earlier this year, around the time the company received full UK banking approval.
The review is intended to assess whether the firm’s internal systems and controls can manage the risks associated with launching additional financial products. The reported review does not establish that Revolut’s personal-loan launch breached any rules, but it places operational governance alongside credit performance as an issue to monitor.
For Revolut, the next challenge is converting its banking permissions into a sustainable lending business while maintaining the controls expected of a fully authorised bank. The initial rollout, eventual credit-card launch and development of a larger loan portfolio will show whether the company can expand its product range without allowing credit and operational risks to grow faster than revenue.
