Revolut has built a bank that still lends like a visitor

Revolut now claims 80 million customers across 40 countries and a private valuation around $115 billion. Yet its loan-to-deposit ratio is only 6%, compared with 80% or more at many established European banks. Its plan is to originate more credit, then securitize or sell much of it to keep balance-sheet use low. Financial Times profile

That helps explain the reported 40–50% return on equity: the business is still dominated by payments, subscriptions and low-capital services. Moving into mortgages, business banking and lending should deepen customer relationships, but it also imports underwriting cycles and funding discipline. Selling loans transfers some credit exposure; it does not erase the incentive to relax standards when origination becomes a growth target. Revolut’s next act is a controlled experiment in how much of a bank it can become without surrendering the economics that made it look unlike one.