For those of you who use Revolut as a multi currency option, it seems they have made good progress towards becoming a fully fledged UK bank !

https://www.revolut.com/blog/post/revolut-uk-bank/

https://www.reuters.com/technology/revolut-gets-uk-banking-licence-2024-07-25/

If you're a resident in Spain (and you set up your Revolut as such) I'm fairly certain you're under the Revolut Bank UAB company which is a registered bank in Lithuania by the way. Not sure this would affect residents much?

It would if you have UK income and it would if you want to hold/move sterling with the £85,000 safeguard (the moving money question often pops on here)

Ah, admittedly I don't know much about this area but was thinking that regardless of where your income was coming from or the currency it was only affecting UK customers. ie. they operate as separate entities in the UK vs EU. But if thats how it works then fair enough!

Many expats maintain UK bank accounts (or try to as many have been closed down), so this might 'potentially' be an option for those that live in Spain and want a fully fledged UK bank. It also potentially helps those who operate multi currency accounts by having the protection offered by banks on their UK pot.

Even though you might operate your EU base account with Revolut under Lithuanian regs any funds you hold in sterling dont have the banking protection offered by the UK (AFAIK)

Still a long way to go though

Yes I use Revolut and my understanding re UK account is the same as yours. I keep a small amount in the uk account to ensure its kept open. I then just move into that account any money i want to transfer to Spanish account. I am limited to £1000 per month anyway as i only have the free account and virtual card on my phone. To date i have found them good easy to use good exchange rate and transfers are instantaneous whether thats between uk to spanish revolut account or spanish revolut account to my main spanish bank. Hopefully when this change of status to bank changes it wont affect how i use it but i will wait and see.

Thats good news. I have money stuck in an account with Interactive Investor because they dont recognise Wise as a bank. Hopefully this will solve the problem.

What is AFAIK?

As Far As I Know

Sorry!! I thought it was a new UK banking protection outfit!

I think those in Spain have an IBAN that starts with ES, though I have friends in other parts of the EU that do indeed have LT (code for Lithuania) in their IBAN.

Could be though that the Spanish bank account numbers are simply part of the Lithuanian bank's limited, local presence in Spain.

My Revolut IBAN starts ES

That is, IMHO, the only relevant test as to whether a bank is "a British bank"

You can check here if an bank/ your account is covered by the UK's deposit protection scheme.

FWIW There is now a "Revolut Newco" that is covered in the UK, but there is no "Wise" listed and "TransferWise" is not covered.

If anyone has a Revolut account they should check very carefully about deposit protection coverage and not assume, or take the word of a bank employee or the website. If your account/ IBAN is flagged "LT" or "ES" you should assume that your account is in Lithuania or Spain respectively unless you can find compelling and independent (of Revolut) evidence that your account is protected.

Is Monese on that list... EUR and GBP accounts offered...
Plus business accounts...

No deposit protection scheme though.