Luxembourg's Revolut rêverie: A train long gone?

When Revolut announced in May 2025 that it would establish its new Western Europe headquarters in Paris, apply for a French banking licence, and invest more than 1 billion euros in France over the next three years, the news landed awkwardly in Luxembourg. The London-founded neobank, which has grown speedily and intends to reach 100.000 Luxembourg-based clients this year, continues to operate with a Lithuanian licence and does not issue Luxembourgish IBANs. That absence prompted a renewed question in the Chamber of Deputies, where MP Laurent Mosar (CSV) raised the issue in June.

Mosar has been one of the earlier critics of fintech companies. Back in 2019, shortly before Revolut withdrew its application for a Luxembourgish e-money licence at CSSF, he warned in a parliamentary question: "Fintech companies are subject to a host of national and international rules. However, it would seem that said rules are not always respected by fintech companies, so that some of them get their approval, even though they do not meet financial and banking regulatory requirements." At the time, he added that, according to his information, "at least one major company that has recently applied for approval would be flagged in its country of origin for non-compliance with existing regulations as well as for non-transparency". Today, Mosar, in the Journal's conversation with him, cannot recall whether he was referring to Revolut specifically – despite our nudge towards the circumstance that in that timeframe, the British Financial Conduct Authority had kept their eye on Revolut and apparently, according to whistleblowers back then, downright compliance conflicts seem to have stirred some trouble.