One of the trickiest parts of filing a sponsor licence application for start-up businesses (those operating or trading in the UK for less than 18 months) is providing a UK business bank statement. Start-ups must provide evidence of a current corporate bank account with an FCA and PRA-registered UK bank. The exception applies if you are applying under the Global Business Mobility- UK Expansion Worker category, in which case you don’t have to open a UK corporate bank account.

It is well known that opening a business bank account in the UK can be quite challenging, especially for newly established businesses. For this reason, we generally advise our clients to consider applying for multiple types of bank accounts simultaneously to enhance their chances of successful account opening.

A common question we receive is whether digital banks meet this requirement. Digital banks are well known for their easy account opening processes, security, and efficiency. However, being both FCA and PRA registered is not always the case for these banks. Therefore, most applicants need to open another UK corporate bank account with traditional banks to satisfy the sponsor licence requirement.

Revolut, a well-known digital financial services provider lodged its application for a UK banking licence in 2021 and it was finally granted with restrictions from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) yesterday. Revolut has been regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and now holds a UK banking licence, which is great news for those applying for a sponsor licence for their business and for businesses who currently hold a bank account with Revolut.   However, the licence is currently in the mobilisation stage, a transitional period allowing Revolut to build its operations under certain restrictions. The duration of this stage is not fixed. According to the Bank of England’s ‘new bank authorisation process’ guide, the mobilisation route is optional and Revolut has up to 12 months to exit the mobilisation stage.