Revolut Gets Permission to Offer Payment Services in India

Revolut, a UK-based financial technology company, has been given official permission by India's central bank to offer prepaid payment cards and digital wallets to Indian customers. It's a major milestone for the company's plans to expand into one of the world's biggest digital payments markets.

What Permission Did Revolut Get?

India's Reserve Bank, the country's financial regulator, approved Revolut to issue what's called Prepaid Payment Instruments—think of them as specialized digital accounts that let you hold and spend money, similar to how a gift card works but for everyday payments.

The approval lets Revolut offer these services directly to Indian customers without having to work entirely through partners or overseas platforms. This is important because international payment companies have traditionally struggled to operate in India due to strict local rules.

Customers in India will be able to use Revolut's cards and digital wallets with UPI, which is India's main real-time payment system. To put the scale in perspective, UPI processes over 13 billion transactions every month. Paroma Chatterjee leads Revolut's operations in India.

The Waiting List and Growth Target

Revolut has already lined up 350,000 people waiting to use the service when it launches. The company is aiming big: it wants to sign up 20 million Indian customers by 2030.

To understand why this matters, Revolut currently has 52.5 million customers worldwide as of 2024. Adding 20 million Indian customers would be like adding a major new market roughly the size of its current European operations.

How It Compares to Competitors

Domestically, Indian payment companies like Paytm and PhonePe already dominate the market. International companies have found it hard to compete because of India's strict rules about where customer data must be stored and how local operations must be structured.

Revolut's approach is to start with prepaid payment services and build from there. The company secured banking approval in the UK in 2024, which could serve as a model for similar moves in other countries like India.

What It Requires

The approval comes with conditions. Revolut has to store customer money in special accounts held with Indian banks and verify who customers are according to Indian rules. When customers make payments, the money flows through Indian bank infrastructure, not directly from Revolut.

This is different from how Revolut operates in Europe, where different countries have agreed to let companies licensed in one country operate freely across borders. In India, Revolut must partner with local banks and follow data rules that require keeping information inside the country.

The Bigger Picture

India matters because it has over 1.4 billion potential users. For Revolut, which was valued at 45 billion dollars in 2024 and has built itself into Europe's most valuable private tech company, India represents the largest new market it has entered in years.

The company has shown it can expand quickly. It went from 38 million retail customers in 2023 to 52.5 million in 2024. It's also been adding features like loyalty rewards and local bank accounts in multiple countries, showing it's building a comprehensive financial service rather than just offering one product.

We have seen this pattern before when fintech companies move into new countries: first, they establish basic payment services and build trust with regulators, then they expand into lending and investment products. Revolut's lending business grew to nearly 1 billion pounds in 2024, showing how this progression can increase revenue once the foundation is solid.

Whether Revolut can actually achieve its 20 million customer goal will tell us a lot about its prospects. If it succeeds in India, the company would have a much larger customer base to point to if it ever goes public. If it doesn't, the investment could end up being expensive and not pay off as hoped.

Both Revolut and another UK fintech company called Tide have announced expansion into India recently, and the UK and Indian governments have publicly supported these moves as part of their financial partnerships. This suggests India is becoming a key battleground for international fintech companies looking to grow beyond mature Western markets.