Revolut tipped to ‘shake up’ UAE remittance market

• Fintech is recruiting in Dubai
• Entry will ‘foster competition’
• Targeting $21bn India-UAE corridor

UK fintech Revolut is stepping up recruitment in Dubai as it prepares to muscle in on the UAE’s $44 billion remittances market.

Last month, more than a dozen Revolut insiders gathered at a cafe in Dubai’s Al Quoz district, courting talent for its UAE operations. 

The company told AGBI last year that it was recruiting in Dubai and it continues to advertise new roles, including positions in product design and software engineering.

The London-based business has kept a low profile while awaiting approval from the UAE Central Bank to operate as an electronic money institution and provide remittance services.

Revolut declined to comment for this article, but industry observers say its entry is likely to trigger major disruption and deliver “shocks” for which traditional banks and exchange houses are not prepared.

Revolut

Remittance ambitions

Sources have told AGBI the fintech company is targeting the lucrative India-UAE remittance corridor, as part of its broader regional ambitions.

Revolut is often preferred for money transfers because it offers competitive exchange rates that are close to the interbank rate. 

The UAE, one of the world’s largest hubs for outbound remittances, sent $21.6 billion to India in 2023, according to data from the government in New Delhi. 

Remittances from overseas workers to India are expected to rise 3.7 percent in 2024, reaching a record $124 billion. They are forecast to hit $129 billion in 2025, driven by increased outflow from the UAE and other Gulf countries.

The company recently set up operations in India, led by CEO Paroma Chatterjee, and secured in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India to issue prepaid payment instruments. 

However, sources say Revolut sees the UAE as a more strategic base because of the complexities of the Indian market.

Fresh from securing a UK banking licence in July this year, Revolut has also been bolstered by an investment this month from Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, which values the fintech at $45 billion, according to the Financial Times. This makes it the UK’s second most valuable bank, behind HSBC.

The stake sale is expected to help Revolut secure additional regulatory approvals in the UAE, where it ultimately intends to pursue a full banking licence, sources say. It has also hinted at plans for a stock market flotation.

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Prakash Sunkara, CFO at Wio Bank, told AGBI that Revolut’s entry was “fostering competition within the ecosystem and providing better services for our customers”. 

“I really don’t mind where that service is coming from, as long as the service is the right thing for the customer,” Sunkara said.

“It is naturally a good thing for competition to be here and for our customers to have better value services. Now if there’s a new entrant which comes into the market, so be it. It doesn’t matter. It’s the customer that needs the best service.”

Gautam Jain of SC Ventures by Standard Chartered said Revolut’s arrival was a good thing, “because it will start creating new business models. It will start helping consumers being served in a different way. It will create competition. The banks will wake up and, if not match, try and better what Revolut is doing”.

Hasan Al Fardan, CEO of remittances company Al Fardan Exchange, has previously dismissed the threat from fintechs, however. He said in July: “To date, fintechs have had no material impact on our business or operations. We are hitting record volumes. Am I losing sleep? Absolutely not.” 

He added that his company had no plans to lower fees to compete with startups.

Revolut’s arrival is expected to draw more global fintechs to Dubai, according to Mohammad Alblooshi, CEO of Dubai International Financial Centre’s Innovation Hub. 

“We expect a surge in large growth-stage companies,” he said. “If the largest has moved to Dubai, there might be something. It encourages everybody.”

Prashant Gulati, an investor in the US-based alternative banking institution Truly Financial, said last year that Revolut’s arrival would be a “wake-up call for staid and lazy incumbents, who haven’t got a worthwhile digital banking strategy or are being slow or not very innovative”.

Another fintech insider warned: “Existing players have no idea what’s about to hit them. Revolut is set to shake up the ecosystem in ways they won’t see coming.”