Revolut intends to face Indian banks and their “penalty” Forex fees

British fintech Revolut – Currently launched in India – he claims that cross -border payments remain one of the most underestimated financial services in India. It is estimated that Hindus spend about $ 30 billion abroad every yr and lose about $ 600 million on bank fees – fees that their Indian boss calls “criminal”.

“It was the domain of banks,” said TechCrunch, a few chatterjee, CEO of Revolut India. “You go to your bank to pay the currency, foreign motto from the bank or take a travel card issued by your bank when you travel abroad … huge fees have been imposed because of this.”

Since 2021, Revolut has been working on the premiere in India, aimed at filling out the gaps, which he considers existing in the domestic currency space and traditional payments. Fintech based in London acquired Arvog Forex In 2022, to obtain a license and offer money transfers and multi -currency accounts in India. In April this yr also He secured the license for the pre -paid payment instrument (PPI). from Reserve Bank of India, enabling it to issue pre -paid cards, support for digital wallets and integrate with the unified payment interface (UPI) supported by the government.

Thanks to these regulatory permits, Revolut intends to challenge traditional banks in India and compete with existing players from the fintech industry. The British startup directs its offer to over 150 million “globally aspiring, native” Hindus “aged 25 to 45. It plans to obtain about 20 million users by 2030 and process their transactions value at least $ 7 billion.

Chatterjee said that such permits of regulatory bodies – including the PPI license – allow FinTech to offer more diverse experiences than players involving partnerships with banks. “We can provide customers with the kind of experience we want to provide,” she said.

Revolut will offer Indian consumers a pre -paid portfolio with UPI support and their own branded UPI handles, in addition to the National Visa card and the international multi -currency Visa card. It may also introduce dedicated accounts for children and teenagers associated with parents’ profiles, a model based on subscription and tools for budgeting and evaluation, which ensure insight into expenses related to expenses.

It is value noting that the startup has regulatory permits enabling each national and international payments and transfers through its platform. It also has authorization enabling monetary messages from India the same day through a local partner bank.

Unlike many Indian players from the fintech industry, who use the minimum control of “Know your client” (KYC) to quickly attract users in the case of limited low -value transactions, Revolut will only offer wallets with full kyc. FinTech may also confirm recent users in terms of worldwide sanction lists, including those conducted by the Office for the Control of Foreign Asset and the United Nations Organization. This approach, said Chatterjee, goals to attract “customers with high intentions” who want to undergo a more detailed implementation process, including Aadhaar and video verification.

“Someone would do it only if they were interested in using the product. Therefore, the number of introduced customers using full kyc will be my customer meter,” she noted.

“In a country like India, when you add your name to the App Store, the number of downloads is powered by pure curiosity,” she said. “This is not our measure of success.”

Fintech also intends to measure its success in India with the depth of user involvement and profitability, and not only increasing the user base.

“There are people who talk about having 300-400 million customers,” said Chatterjee Techcrunch. “Revolut around the world in 39 countries has 65 million customers, and its value is valued at $ 75 billion. The reason is that of those 65 million customers Revolut processes transactions value over $ 4 billion and provides a profit of over a billion dollars.

He means the recent Revolut quote announced last month Thanks to the secondary sales of shares, which increased from $ 45 billion last summer.

She also said that there are already over 350,000 people on the waiting list of Revolut in India, who plans to implement this yr before providing the application with recent users. However, the exact launch schedule will depend on how quickly the company will clean the waiting list, and customers will undergo KYC control and control of prevention of cash laundering (AML).

Startup is also looking for partners aside from Visa, including the Indian Rupay government, as a part of improving the product to provide customers with a network selection.

Revolut has has already donated $ 45 million In India, to start operating and locate a whole stack of technology in order to adapt to national regulations regarding data sovereignty. Chatterjee said that after starting a business, he was planning more investments.

Of the 10,000 Revolut employees around the world, around 3500 are already working in India – this is the largest working strength of Revolut in the world, even greater than on the domestic market in Great Britain. Some of those employees are also working on products and functions available on markets outside India.

Although Revolut’s plans are significant, after their appearance he’ll still have to face the competition. While currency exchange is dominated by banks in India, players from the fintech industry, akin to Niyo, Scapia, Fi and Bookmyforex, are already energetic on the Indian cross -border market and money messages.