Revolut had by far the highest number of monthly active users (MAUs) among leading digital banks in Europe in 2024. The UK-based neobank had an average of over six million MAUs through the year, twice as many as Wise, which ranked second with just over three million MAUs. Third in the ranking was another UK-based digital bank, Monzo, with roughly 887,000 MAUs in 2024. Revolut and Wise were also the two largest European digital banks in terms of total assets, with Revolut holding over 20 billion euros in assets at the end of 2023.

Revolut experienced significant customer growth between 2018 and 2024, reaching 50 million customers in November 2024. If the neobank maintains its current growth trajectory, projections suggest it could expand to over 67 million customers by December 2025. While the United Kingdom remains its primary market with approximately 10 million users, Revolut download figures indicate strong popularity in Romania, France, and Poland. Scaling up: Revolut's journey to 50 million users In February 2018, the London-based neobank Revolut reported 1.5 million customers, a number that grew to three million by November of the same year. By September 2019, Revolut had reached eight million customers, a figure that more than tripled to over 25 million by November 2022. The company's rapid expansion continued, with its customer base increasing by 10 million in just 11 months between November 2022 and October 2023, reaching 35 million customers. By March 2024, Revolut's customer base had grown to 40 million, and by November 2024, the company celebrated hitting the 50 million customer milestone. Parallel to this explosive customer growth, Revolut also experienced significant financial improvement, with its revenue nearly doubling in 2023. Funding of banking fintechs For several years, fintech banking startup investments surged, with funding often doubling annually - a trend particularly evident in 2017 and 2021. However, 2022 marked a dramatic shift, marking the first investment decline since 2016. The downturn continued into 2023, with funding plummeting to 2.2 billion U.S. dollars, the lowest level in seven years.

Revolut experienced robust customer growth between 2018 and 2024, reaching 50 million users in November 2024. The digital bank's customer base doubled between 2022 and 2024. If the neobank maintains its current growth trajectory, Revolut's customer base is forecast to exceed 67 million by December 2025.

Digital challenger banks have attracted more and more customers in recent years. In 2021, the Brazilian NuBank had 56 million users. It was followed by Revolut and Chime, with 15 and 12 millions users, respectively. The UK-based challenger bank Monzo registered approximately 5.8 million users.

Revolut was the most popular digital bank in Europe by downloads, significantly outpacing all other digital banks in the region. In 2024, the Revolut app was downloaded over 31 million times, with August recording the highest number of downloads. The banking app was particularly popular in the United Kingdom (UK), France, Romania and Poland. Number of active customers Given the impact of multiple downloads and inactive users, the number of active customers, as reported by banks, may provide a more accurate measure of customer growth. In February 2018, Revolut announced reaching 1.5 million customers, a figure that grew to 18 million by 2022 and surged to 35 million by October 2023. By November 2024, Revolut reported surpassing 50 million customers. This rapid growth in customer acquisition has also been reflected in other online-only banks, such as the Berlin-based N26 and London-headquartered Monzo.

The use of online and mobile banking is expected to increase steadily between 2021 and 2024, with the Asian market being the largest. In 2020, Far East and China accounted for over 805 million active online banking users. This figure is predicted to reach nearly one billion by 2024. Although Asia was the largest market for online banking in 2020, the countries with the largest online banking penetration rate were all European. South Korea ranked sixth, with a penetration rate of 74 percent. What are the benefits of online banking? Online banking comes with many advantages. On the one hand, it provides customers with an easy and fast way to conduct banking operations, allowing them to avoid visiting banks’ physical branches. Moreover, as more and more customers conduct their banking operations remotely, banks can decrease the number of physical branches and reduce maintenance costs. Over the last ten years, the number of branches of FDIC-insured commercial banks in the United States decreased by more than 10,400. Among the most demanded features of mobile banking, U.S. mobile banking users perceived the possibility of detecting breaches in one's Social Security number as the most valuable one. Digital-only banks Digital-only banks, also known as challengers or neobanks, are recently-established banks that have no physical branches and provide banking facilities only through digital platforms. These banks leverage their low maintenance costs and streamlined operations to challenge the large incumbents that dominate the banking sector. The market size of digital-only banks worldwide stood at roughly 47.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, and it is predicted to soar to 2.05 trillion U.S. dollars by 2030. As of 2021, the Brazilian Nubank ranked first among the most valuable independent digital-only banks worldwide, followed by the U.K.-based Revolut and the San Francisco-headquartered Chime.

PayTM dominated the global neobank landscape in 2024 with over 60 million monthly active users (MAUs), far surpassing its closest competitor, Nubank, which recorded over 10 million MAUs. Cash App secured third place with 7.6 million MAUs, while Revolut and Inter completed the top five with 6.1 million and 4.5 million MAUs respectively.

Banks employ various strategies to attract and retain their customer base, such as cheap overdrafts, in-credit interest and no withdrawal charges. While the number of new and active customers can be easily observed, customer satisfaction is trickier. Knowing how customers feel about the service received can help banks adjust to the dynamics of an increasingly competitive market. Customer satisfaction for leading banks in the UK According to the Which? customer satisfaction survey, as of November 2024, three digital banks, First Direct, Monzo Bank, and Starling Bank had the highest customer satisfaction score. According to the survey, 83 percent of these banks' customers were satisfied with the banks' services and products, and willing to recommend them to their friends. Investment in selected European countries Among the services that aim at making banking more customer-oriented and effortless is the current account switch service (CASS). CASS allows customers to change their bank account hassle-free, redirecting transactions and transferring payment arrangements. As of the second quarter of 2024, nine out of 20 banks observed increased their customer base following the CASS process. The highest gain-to-loss ratios were recorded by Danske Bank and Santander, gaining respectively 5.29 and 3.27 times more new customers than the ones lost to other banks.