Revolut's Customer Base in Portugal Grows by Half to 2.3 Million, but Mortgages Remain Off the Menu for Now

Revolut now has 2.3 million customers in Portugal, 49 percent more than a year ago, but has no date for offering mortgages in the country, one of its senior executives told the news agency Lusa in an interview published on Sunday.

Ignacio Zunzunegui, who is responsible for the company's growth in southern Europe, Latin America and the United States, said Revolut wants to offer "all the products that traditional banking offers" without becoming a traditional bank. "We already offer personal loans, and we are also working on a credit card. Mortgages are a bit more complex because they need local adaptation," he said. Revolut has launched home loans in Lithuania, where it holds its European banking licence.

Deposits first

For now, Zunzunegui said, the aim in Portugal is to grow customer deposits. Revolut lends out only a small share of the money it holds: its loan-to-deposit ratio is "around 4 to 6 percent", and the goal is not for it to rise to "60, 80, 90 or 100 percent", he said. "We want to be a place where the customer gets products at a competitive price," he said.

Besides its personal customers, Revolut counts 20,000 businesses in Portugal. Cards, currency exchange and payment terminals are its most used services, according to Zunzunegui. Among people who invest through the app, 49 percent hold money market funds, which he described as the safest kind of investment product, as savers follow European Central Bank rates while keeping risk low. The growth, he said, is in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and American shares.

When he took on the role in 2022, Revolut had fewer than a million customers across southern Europe. It now has more than 15 million there, he said, with seven million in Spain, six million in Italy and close to two million in Greece.

Young users bring their parents

Revolut's customers skew young, but Zunzunegui said the average age rises every year as the customer base grows and comes to look more like the general population. He said growth among 18 to 24-year-olds pulls in their families: "They are the trendsetters."

Physical branches build trust, he acknowledged, but "nobody wants to go to the bank". Even so, Revolut is testing a counter in Barcelona.

What it means for customers in Portugal

Mortgages remain the preserve of banks with a physical presence and local credit processes, and Portuguese borrowers have had a difficult autumn: October brought the steepest rise in mortgage payments for three years, and parliament has voted to scrap the fee for paying off a variable-rate loan early. On the savings side, Bank of Portugal figures show savers in Portugal earn less than the euro area average on every kind of deposit.

Revolut was in the news in September after impostors emailing from a real government domain got it to release customer files on 680 accounts. Customers who receive an unexpected request for personal data should check it through the app's own support channel before replying.