Revolut to enter personal loans market

The 100% app driven digital bank Revolut is to introduce personal loans for up to €30,000 with an ambition to be among the top 3 lenders in the segment in Portugal.

Introducing home loans to 30,000 customers will be phased in over the next six months. All loan contracts will be 100% digital and applied for and managed using the app.

The bank’s Managing Director in Portugal, Rúben Germano says the service will be fast and transparent, offering the best interest rates and no bank charges for opening or paying off the loan.

To help undertake risk assessment, Revolut will access information from the Bank of Portugal and also the customers’ own accounts through an open banking system.

“We want to ensure that the customer can pay the loan and that we can provide it. It has to be a win-win situation. A sustainable credit situation both for the customer and us,” he said in an interview with business daily Negócios.

For the time being the facility will be available for 30,000 customers and every fortnight the service will be extended to reach more customers. Over a period of six months Revolut hopes to make the service available to its 1.3 million customers in Portugal.

Portugal is the eighth country in which Revolut is launching personal loans, being leaders in the digital personal loans segment in Lithuania.

The launch of the personal loan product is part of the bank’s wider strategy to become the main account of families.

In February 2023 Revolut announced that it would open a branch in Portugal and obtain a Portuguese IBAN. I hopes to achieve this aim by the end of this year or the beginning of the next.