Three different legal entities live under one name, and the protection of the money depends on which of them serves the account. In the EEA, Poland included, it is the Lithuanian bank; in the United Kingdom part of the customers are still served by an electronic money institution.
In the EEA it is a bank, not electronic money
The Lithuanian legal entity has held a full banking licence since 13 December 2021: it was granted by the ECB, and supervision is run by the Bank of Lithuania. The balance is a deposit covered by the Lithuanian insurance scheme up to €100,000 per depositor, and the payout deadline under the scheme rules is 7 working days. Electronic money has no such protection, and that is written outright into the insurance exclusions.
In the United Kingdom the banking licence started working without restrictions on 11 March 2026, but the migration of customers to the bank is not finished: the live pages and the agreement still describe the account as electronic money without FSCS cover. Which legal entity serves a particular account can be seen in the app.
Rules on third parties: what Revolut does not have
A rule under which an incoming bank transfer from another person is rejected is not published by Revolut — not in the agreements, not in the help centre, not for personal accounts and not for business ones. The claim “Revolut does not accept transfers from third parties” is not confirmed by the primary sources, and it is not worth repeating.
Rules about the name do exist, but they are narrower. A card linked for top-ups must be in the name of the account holder. An external account connected for top-ups must match exactly by name. The Lithuanian and Irish agreements have a separate ban on acting on the account in the interests of a third party; the United Kingdom and Polish agreements do not have that phrase.
Zloty, BLIK and what a customer in Poland gets
A customer with an address in Poland gets Polish account details for incoming transfers in zloty. Legally this is a sub-account of the main account, so the zloty are covered by the same Lithuanian guarantee. The pound details, on the contrary, are issued by the British legal entity: an incoming pound first becomes electronic money and only then lands on the account.
BLIK has been in Revolut since 18 November 2024: Polish resident status and a zloty account are required, paying in shops and online is free, and an ATM withdrawal costs 2% and not less than 5 zloty.
But in the list of Express Elixir participants held by that system's operator Revolut is absent, and it does not use the word “Elixir” anywhere. Treating Revolut's Polish details as fit for instant transfers under that scheme is not possible — the sources do not confirm it.
Restrictions, freezes and Ukraine
Revolut does not open an account for a resident of Ukraine and closes existing ones: the help centre has a separate section on the winding down of service, and the account is closed 60 days after the first letter. The wordings differ, though — the availability page calls it a temporary pause, the section on closure speaks of a decision to stop serving. A Ukrainian citizen living in the EEA is not affected by this.
An account is restricted for an unfinished identity check, an unconfirmed source of funds and outdated tax details; the agreement expressly gives the right to refuse both an incoming and an outgoing payment. A maximum period for how long the money may stay frozen is in no agreement and in no help centre article.
A separate rule few people know about: if a customer has dealt with cryptocurrency at any company of the group, they cannot send payments in Chinese yuan — that is how it is written in the EEA agreement. And whether Revolut accepts fiat from crypto services, the sources do not say either way.