British Fintech Giant Revolut Eyes APAC Expansion as Australian Spending Soars

By Ben Knight May 31, 2024 In Banking, Banks, Scams, United Kingdom
  • British neo-bank Revolut is expanding into the APAC region, ramping up marketing efforts while negotiating financial regulations.
  • The company has long been involved in the crypto scene – albeit on the fringes – by allowing certain digital asset transactions.
  • However, a new anti-scam measure requiring a selfie and a hand-written note has been subject to significant online controversy.

It’s been a positive start to 2024, with several key financial institutions entering the crypto scene. British payment goliaths Revolut have been tinkering with digital currencies for quite some time, allowing basic crypto transactions and trading through their services. 

Although some customers claim that Revolut isn’t actually crypto-friendly, they are still one of many fintech companies putting their hat into the Web3 ring. And now, after conquering the European market, Revolut has set its sights on the Australian Pacific Region as customer numbers grow.

Related: New York Stock Exchange to Collaborate with CoinDesk for Potential Crypto Trading

Revolut Expanding to India as Controversy Looms Over Anti-Scam Measures

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In a recent press release, Revolut’s Head of Growth Charlie Short emphasised that APAC nations are a huge point of interest for the company going forward.

Accelerating Revolut’s growth in APAC markets remains a top priority.

Revolut

The team will have to negotiate stringent local regulations while ramping up marketing in nations like Australia and Singapore.

A key rationale for the increased focus is the business’ short-term success in Australia. Within the past year, Revolut ticked over 600k Aussie customers, while its YoY transactions more than doubled to AU$680m in the first quarter of 2024. 

The Revolut app has found its home in Australia, but is also growing throughout New Zealand, Singapore and Japan, with India the next nation on the agenda.

However, not everything is moving in the right direction for the Fintech giants. A strange new anti-scam policy has erupted into discourse all throughout social media. Essentially, whenever Revolut flags a transaction as a potential scam, it now requires its users to post a selfie holding a note that reads “Revolut warned me this is likely a scam”.  

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There are many innovative ways to deal with the world of online scamming – something that’s especially important when navigating the Web3 ecosystem. But, just maybe, treating your customers like prisoners requiring a mugshot might not be the best way to go about it.

Ben Knight
Author

Ben Knight

Ben Knight is a writer and editor from Melbourne with a passion for all things music and finance. He enjoys turning complex topics – especially the technical details of cryptocurrency – into digestible bites that anybody can understand. He acquired his Master’s in Writing, Editing and Publishing from RMIT in 2019 and has run his own creative writing business ever since.

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