Revolut targets business banking market

Following the launch of its expenses management tool last week James Gibson, senior product owner of Revolut confirms the bank is pivoting more to the business banking sector.

“We see a lot of potential and opportunity for businesses in the UK and the rest of Europe. It’s of huge strategic importance to us,” he says.

“We’ve had our retail banking products for four years, and it’s been very successful. About two years ago the business product was launched much quieter. We’ve flown a little bit under the radar in the business banking market, but in the last few months we’ve launched quite a few releases and we’ve launched quite a few free plans for our customers.

The new expense management feature is available to freelancers and corporates on paid plans. The tool allows business managers to monitor expenses in real time and sync them with their Xero accounts to automate reconciliation. Businesses that don’t use Xero can export expenses via a CSV file.   

It comes after reports of problems for retail customers, some of whom were double-charged for transactions in July. A year earlier, the bank’s founder and CEO Nik Storonsky posted a blog, addressing the fact that a large number of Revolut customers' payments were timing out or failing altogether. Storonsky suggested the fault was with a third party working with the bank. Gibson confirms the expenses management tool has been built in-house.

According to the company’s website, more than 100,000 firms have signed up for Revolut for Business, including Clausematch, Ted Baker, and Faction. The bank’s retail banking customer base is more than six million, with more than 350 million transactions processed.

“Revolut brings together lots of things under one roof to help our business clients. The expense management tool now adds to our other business offerings: FX, a range of payments options, open API connections, FreeAgent bank integration, mobile apps for business. We’re really building a lot of products with many features to help businesses.”

“What we’re trying to do here is bring together a lot of services under one roof.”

In the UK, output fell 0.2 percent in the three months to June, with Sterling impacted by Brexit and concerns over a trade war. Both are concerns for small businesses, but Gibson is confident the bank’s movement into business banking won’t be negatively felt.

“We offer very credible FX rates. Customers who are suffering from the fluctuating exchange rates want really good rates so they’re coming to us and saying ‘we’ve done the sums, and we can save a lot of money by coming to you.’”

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