London-based digital bank Revolut has suspended the registration of new customers in Ukraine, the company told The Kyiv Independent on April 9.
The fintech firm officially launched services in Ukraine in February, quickly drawing scrutiny from the National Bank of Ukraine, which accused Revolut of operating without proper banking licenses.
Revolut has denied these allegations, saying it offers EU accounts to Ukrainians on a cross-border basis rather than establishing local operations.
"This does not impact our existing Ukrainian customers; their accounts and services continue to operate as normal," Revolut's press service said.
"Ukrainians can sign up to the waiting list while we are working to resume onboarding."
The company declined to comment further on the reasons for this decision.
Revolut on Feb. 11 began offering Ukrainian residents access to features like instant, free transfers between app users by setting up a European Revolut account.
The company introduced a special Clear Sky debit card in Ukraine's national blue and yellow colors, launching fundraising to support Ukrainian war refugees.
Revolut has raised over 500,000 pounds ($631,000) through this campaign, and is planning to donate an additional 200,000 pounds ($252,000) by itself, the company said.
Since 2022, people have sent more than 1 billion euros ($1.03 billion) to Ukraine through Revolut, mainly from Germany, the U.K., Ireland, Poland, and the Netherlands, according to the company.
Two weeks after Revolut's official launch in Ukraine, the country's central bank (NBU) said that the bank has not applied for a license to operate in Ukraine as required by law.
Ukrainian banking regulations require foreign banks to establish local branches or obtain specific licenses approved by the NBU before operating in the market.
Revolut countered that its services for Ukrainian residents are provided by Revolut Bank UAB, a Lithuania-based entity supervised by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Lithuania.
Revolut is a British multinational neobank and fintech company, co-founded by Ukrainian tech entrepreneur Vlad Yatsenko and Russian-born Nikolai Storonsky, who renounced his Russian citizenship after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The company has also stopped all operations in Russia and Belarus.
Martin Fornusek
(Updated: )
