British bank Revolut granted license in Mexico

Photo: Maor Winetrob/Shutterstock

According to data from Banxico, Mexico brought in USD 60.9 billion in remittances in 2023, up 5.3 percent from the previous year. That makes the country the biggest remittance corridor in the world, growing continuously for the past decade. And that is just one of the reasons that Europe’s biggest neobank and wannabe super-app Revolut has decided to land in Mexico.

The British fintech company has just received a banking license from the Mexico’s Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV). With a team expected to triple in size by the end of the year, it is preparing for the authorities’ audit process, one step prior to the start of local operations.

Unlike other markets where regulation has evolved to provide a series of gradual obligations and permissions for fintechs to develop, in Mexico the rules are pretty restrictive. Either startups fall into a few categories with very limited operational scope, or take on the challenge of seeking a full banking license.

“For Revolut, being who we are, there was no other way around it,” CEO Juan Miguel Guerra Dávila tells The Brazilian Report. Mexico is only the second market (after the European Union) where Revolut will operate as a bank. In Brazil, where it arrived in May last year, Revolut is awaiting a banking license while operating as a direct credit company (SCD).

Mr. Dávila says Revolut has something that no other player in Mexico has: an end-to-end operation between the U.S. and Mexico that will allow...

Fabiane Ziolla Menezes

Former editor-in-chief of LABS (Latin America Business Stories), Fabiane has more than 15 years of experience reporting on business, finance, innovation, and cities in Brazil. The latter recently took her back to the classroom and made her a Master in Urban Management from PUCPR. At TBR, she keeps an eye on economic policy, game-changing businesses, and people driving innovation in Latin America.