Revolut scraps ‘remote-first’ working for graduate hires

Europe’s most valuable fintech will require junior staff to spend at least three days a week in the office from next year

Revolut is a digital banking alternative that includes a prepaid debit card, currency exchange, and peer-to-peer payments. Photograph: Getty Images
Revolut is a digital banking alternative that includes a prepaid debit card, currency exchange, and peer-to-peer payments. Photograph: Getty Images

Revolut will require its graduate employees to work from the office for the majority of the week in a shift away from the “remote-first” approach long championed by the fintech.

The London-headquartered bank has told incoming graduates they will be required to spend at least three days a week in the office from next year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The partial retreat from its “remote-first” approach will bring Revolut more in line with traditional financial institutions, many of which have tightened office attendance mandates since the pandemic despite resistance from some staff.

Until now, graduates at Revolut could choose whether to work from home, the office or abroad, in line with the company’s standard policy.

Revolut chief executive Nik Storonsky told employees last year that the fintech cared “more about what you do than where you do it”, and that its flexible policy would remain unchanged as long as staff remained productive.

Some companies have used office perks, such as in-house climbing walls and nail bars, to attract staff back to the office.

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But Revolut, which is hiring more than 300 graduates and interns this year, has used flexible working as a recruitment tool, promoting it as a key employee benefit under the banner: “No ping pong tables or bean bag chairs, just benefits you actually want.”

The fintech allows employees to work remotely from abroad 120 days a year to “explore new cultures while staying productive and connected”, but is curtailing this approach for junior hires because it believes in-person working will help their development.

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Revolut confirmed in a statement that its policy would change for graduates and interns joining in 2027, saying it recognised that “the early stages of a career benefit from in-person collaboration and mentoring”.

“For all other employees, our remote-first policy is unchanged,” it added.

Revolut’s flexibility contrasts sharply with the incumbent banks it is seeking to challenge, with many lenders rolling back pandemic-era hybrid working practices in recent years.

Bank chiefs, including JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, have criticised hybrid working, citing concerns around productivity, training and mentoring.

One person close to Revolut said graduates who successfully completed the programme and were offered full-time positions would move on to “standard, remote-first contracts. We see that flexibility as a driver of productivity, not a trade-off against it.”

Revolut, which employs about 11,000 staff globally, moved into a new global headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf towards the end of last year.

Launched in the United Kingdom a little over a decade ago, Revolut has grown rapidly and was last year valued at $75 billion (€66 billion) in a share sale. The company has told investors that it aims to eventually go public with a $200 billion valuation, as previously reported. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026

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