Revolut is ready to launch in Singapore, the company has said. A beta launch is likely within the “coming weeks,” implying March 2019.
Revolut had already confirmed that Singapore would be its Asia-Pacific headquarters, offering as it does a “technologically adept and well-educated workforce coupled with a fintech-friendly regulatory framework … \[and\] leading tech and entrepreneurial environment."
Created by former London investment bankers Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, Revolut is at the forefront of industry innovations that are seeing consumers, investors, foreign workers and SMEs abandon the traditional banking sector when it comes to oversees payments.
In the 30 countries in which Revolut currently operates (covering the EEA, Switzerland and Australia), its monthly transaction volume is now in excess of US$4 billion and the number of customers it serves is increasing at a rate of knots: its customer base is up by 40 percent since last October, to 3.9 million.
Unlike fellow FX-innovator TransferWise, Revolut is officially a bank (in Europe at least), which allows it to offer digital current accounts complete with debit card, personal loans (UK customers only as of February 2019), Direct Debit and standing order capabilities, cashback on card payments (subject to a monthly account fee), and with funds protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Though TransferWise’s borderless account has many of the same benefits as Revolut when it comes to cross-border payments, it remains an e-money account and as such lacks the aforementioned features, with the exception of the accompanying debit card. The borderless account also lacks some of the budgeting controls, spending summaries and savings features of a Revolut account.
In an interview earlier this month, Revolut’s Storonsky re-affirmed a commitment to press into more new markets in 2019 and 2020, including Canada, the US, New Zealand and Japan; he even suggested markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and India as part of a “second wave” of expansion.
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