The financial institution, which has over two million customers in Portugal, has officially reached an agreement with SIBS to join Multibanco, which was "the biggest barrier to becoming the main bank account for Portuguese people."

"This has been a personal struggle since I joined Revolut. I've always said that to win in Portugal, we needed the Multibanco network. Since the summer, we've been growing at unprecedented levels. I believe the expectation regarding the local IBAN is really accelerating growth," Ignacio Zunzunegui, Revolut's Growth Manager for Southern Europe, explained to ECO.

This is another step in the competition with other banks, because those with a Revolut card can now make payments (online and offline) using QR codes, pay invoices, utility bills, or taxes to the State using Multibanco references, and withdraw cash at ATMs. Until now, due to the Visa and MasterCard networks, this wasn't possible.

Ignacio Zunzunegui also explains that there will be a virtual Revolut Multibanco card that can be used to make payments at POS (Point of Sale) systems—such as supermarkets, stores, or restaurants—that are not compatible with Visa.

Portuguese IBAN transition

The company is migrating the accounts of more than two million customers to the local branch (Revolut Bank UAB – Branch in Portugal) and, therefore, to the Portuguese IBAN "PT50," but refuses to say where the process is at. "It's going as expected. We hope to continue the migration until the end of 2025 and complete it by then. If not completely, almost completely," Ignacio Zunzunegui said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the company's new headquarters in London.

Revolut's leader in Southern Europe is "optimistic" about all the fintech's developments in the Portuguese market and has a clear ambition: to reach the top. "I believe Portugal is one of the places where we've made the most progress in the primary bank account space. I believe we'll be one of the top three," predicts the manager.

When asked about the issues with transfer delays reported to ECO, Ignacio Zunzunegui assures that "this shouldn't be the case," because the switch to "PT50" changes "nothing" other than the Lithuanian IBAN ("LT59") to the national one, which allows users to receive their salary monthly through their Revolut account, if they wish.

"The fact that we have a different IBAN shouldn't change how it works. In a transfer, there are two parties: the bank sending the money and the bank receiving the money. Sometimes we control 50% of the transaction; the other 50% may be delayed, and this is often due to the receiving bank's risk assessment," he explains, adding that the creation of a branded ATM remains in the plans.

Once all customers migrate to the Portuguese branch, they will have access to a new product called "Immediate Access Savings" to make their money profitable through deposits and withdrawals of up to €100,000, with variable interest rates from 1.50% to 2.25% Gross Annual Percentage Rate (TANB).

"I can share with you the example of our neighbouring country. In Spain, we launched this a year ago and, since then, we've managed to acquire €1.3 billion in deposits. I expect that Portugal, which has demonstrated strong product adoption in the past, will see significant adoption of this new savings product," anticipates Ignacio Zunzunegui.