It would be nice if revolut offered interest on EUR and CHF balances. In Switzerland all banks offer a minimum interest to the customer, this creates this question for me: Why should I keep money on revolut when other banks with the same functions also give me interest on the money I have?
The CH IBAN for Swiss residents is registered to Revolut, so they receive the interest, the GB personal IBAN should be submitted to the BOE, for residents of Europe who have an LT iban under the European Central Bank.
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I do support your request for interest.
I am not so sure about your conclusion about Revolut’s business relationship with the partner in Switzerland providing the IBAN.
Revolut‘s Swiss customers are kind of muddled in with the UK. After Brexit, Switzerland’s specific relationship with the EEA allowed Revolut to keep Swiss customers tied to the UK legal entity, which is not a bank but an e-money provider. You’re getting basically the UK app, with some restrictions and some add-ons for the Swiss market.
To provide a Swiss IBAN, Revolut most likely relies on a partner. I haven’t followed this, but I am assuming it’s still a pooled account where Swiss customers can transfer money locally to avoid fees?
If that’s the case, your money is never on Revolut‘s balance sheet (because of the e-money license). We don’t know any details about the business relationship between Revolut and the third party service provider. My assumption is that funds are just routed through and then kept with Revolut‘s partner banks under the e-money license. This is not comparable to how regular banks can gain interest on deposits.
In the EEA, Revolut does not offer interest on savings like a savings account would. They offer investments in money market funds that are available daily. This service is provided by Revolut’s European trading branch which can not extend its services to customers that are part of the UK entity.
(I am assuming here that Revolut hasn’t changed anything about the Swiss market recently. Apologies if this is outdated. I would be interested to learn if things have indeed changed recently for Swiss customers.)
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For Swiss customers Revolut offers a CH iban at Credit Suisse. The account is in the name of Revolut, in order to receive bank transfers you must enter your customer number in the reason for payment. We will never know, but Revolut will definitely get interest on our deposits from Credit Suisse, it would be stupid not to (unless there is legal revenue)
My question always remains unanswered: Why should I keep my money in Revolut and pay with Revolut if I get nothing back? For some little extra function that can be replaced by other services?
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Here’s where I am not following you. It’s not Revolut‘s money. Legally, Revolut can not treat it like it would be part of their balance sheet. Nor can Credit Suisse treat it as Revout‘s deposit’s. It’s similar to an escrow account. Also, I am assuming the money doesn’t stay there for long to actually gain much interest. It’s most likely forwarded to one of Revolut‘s partner banks that hold the money for Swiss and UK users in ring-fenced accounts. UK customers can hold CHF as well. It’s possible of course that Swiss deposits are stored locally. But this is not a standard account where banks „definitely“ pay interest.
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Revolut has addressed this with its Flexible Accounts in some European countries. Due to the legal situation after Brexit, there’s no straightforward way to offer this to Swiss customers. And interest gaining Vaults, more traditional savings accounts (now called Pockets) were never really rolled out outside the UK besides a brief stint in Poland, if I remember correctly.
This doesn’t answer the question why you should keep deposits with Revolut. But it might offer insights into the reasons why Revolut does not offer certain services in Switzerland. Also, Revolut is not a bank from the perspective of Siwss customers. They might not be that keen on holding large customer deposits compared to banks due to their very limited options what to do with them.
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