The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has registered Revolut Bank New Zealand to provide banking services, making the local arm of the London-headquartered payments group the country's 27th registered bank. The approval came almost two years after Revolut applied.
Its first product is a savings account paying a variable 3.5% to new personal customers for four months on balances up to $50,000, with interest paid daily. The licence also enables Revolut to take part in the Depositor Compensation Scheme, which guarantees $100,000 per depositor, per deposit-taker, and the company has pledged to invest NZ$120 million in New Zealand over five years.
WHAT THE REGULATOR REQUIRED
Scott McKinnon, the Reserve Bank's director of specialist supervision, said the central bank recognises "the value that credible new entrants can bring to a competitive, resilient, inclusive, and efficient financial system" and that Revolut had met the required standard for registration. According to the New Zealand Herald, Revolut had to show it held at least $30 million of capital in New Zealand to begin with, with an appropriate ownership structure and adequate systems and controls.
S&P Global Ratings gave Revolut Bank a BBB+ rating with a positive outlook, weaker than New Zealand's major banks to reflect Revolut's "start-up nature". The rating aligns with Revolut's UK-registered company, which is guaranteeing all of the New Zealand entity's liabilities for now, the Herald reported.
A RARE NEW ENTRANT
Revolut has operated in New Zealand as a financial services provider since July 2023, starting with payments, currency exchange and crypto trading, and applied for bank registration in December 2024. It has more than 100,000 mostly personal users in the country.
The last bank to be registered before Revolut was the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, in 2020. The Commerce Commission's 2024 market study found that the big four held 85-90% of registered bank assets, that 92% of consumers treated one of the five largest banks as their main bank and that 54% had never switched.
For the group, New Zealand is the seventh banking licence in total, five of them in 2026, chief executive Nik Storonsky said; Australia's prudential regulator granted Revolut an unrestricted licence in July. Revolut reported 68.3 million retail customers at the end of 2025 and now says it has more than 80 million.
PRICING AND PRODUCTS
"It's clear the market is primed for disruption," said Ryan Brosnahan, chief executive of Revolut Bank NZ. Brosnahan, who leads the local bank, was previously chief transformation officer at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and spent almost 15 years at ANZ. He told the Herald the bank would release a credit card in the coming months, before considering whether to launch other products.
Beyond the introductory offer, the 2% rate Revolut pays is on a par with other banks, the Herald noted, while its 3% rate is only available to customers who pay $79.99 a month for its Ultra plan.
THE TGB VIEW
Revolut is pitching itself against a market dominated by four Australian-owned banking groups. Australia's largest banking groups sit high in the TGB Bank Rankings: Commonwealth Bank of Australia ranks 44th in the world with US$886.7bn of assets, ANZ Group 46th, Westpac 54th and National Australia Bank 55th. The 3.5% offer is aimed at customers in a market where, by the Commerce Commission's count, 54% had never switched. Lending comes later, starting with a credit card in the coming months, and the licensing regime itself changes when the Deposit Takers Act 2023 comes into force on 1 December 2028.
Related: Revolut launches UK personal loans of £2,000 to £25,000 and plans credit cards
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