Revolut Offers Staff £1,000 Bonuses in FTSE 250 Banking Push

Revolut is preparing to market its business banking services to FTSE 250 companies, according to a Financial Times report published on Wednesday, setting the fintech up against the corporate banking arms of Britain's largest lenders. Staff at the company receive £1,000 (roughly $1,355) for every business customer they refer.

Revolut Business, which dates back to 2017 and is led by James Gibson, has 800,000 clients and is aiming for 1 million globally by 2027. The division brought in £708 million of revenue in 2025, an increase of 53% year on year. Its product set covers current accounts, payment services and corporate debit cards, with clients cited in the report including Booking.com and fitness chain Barry's Bootcamp.

UK licence opens the lending door

Gibson told the FT that the unit has built traction among businesses with five to 50 employees but has not yet taken a meaningful position with larger corporate clients. Mid-cap companies typically want working capital facilities and other lending alongside payments and cash management — capability that was absent until March, when the Prudential Regulation Authority lifted restrictions on Revolut's UK banking licence. That process began with an application in 2021 and a restricted authorisation from July 2024.

Revolut is taking a measured approach to credit and is recruiting staff from banks with established corporate operations. "You can't just go 'bang' . . . you've got to have credit underwriting models," Gibson said. No timetable was given. Competing with NatWest, Lloyds, HSBC and Barclays will require lending capacity and underwriting the four incumbents already possess, alongside much larger balance sheets.

The push differs from how other UK digital banks started out. Monzo introduced Business Lite and Business Pro in March 2020 for sole traders and limited companies, passing 380,000 business clients by early 2024. Starling launched a mobile business account in March 2018 and reported 155,000 business accounts and a 2.6% share of UK SME banking by May 2020.

Revolut Business represented about 16% of Revolut's £4.5 billion of 2025 revenue, per the company's annual report, with transaction volume of £277 billion, up 56% on 2024. Total assets stood at £43 billion at the end of 2025. Gibson said founder and chief executive Nik Storonsky sees corporate banking as a growth opportunity. The company, which has 75 million customers across 40 countries, has not named any FTSE 250 prospects or detailed how much of the 200,000 additional clients needed for its 2027 goal is expected to come from larger firms.