Revolut, the UK-based fintech with millions of users across Europe, has announced two major initiatives planned for 2026 that will reshape how its customers in Portugal and beyond experience fraud protection, credit scoring, and cryptocurrency services. The company has formally established Revolut Research, a dedicated artificial intelligence unit, and announced the EURR stablecoin—a euro-denominated digital currency planned for launch in Portugal, Denmark, and Poland, with a broader rollout across the European Economic Area to follow.
Why This Matters
• Fraud detection improvement: PRAGMA, Revolut's proprietary AI model, is designed to identify 65% more fraud cases and deliver 17% higher precision in alerts compared to previous systems, according to the company.
• Credit access potential: The AI is projected to improve credit risk prediction by 2.3 times, potentially opening loan products to more customers with lower default rates.
• Crypto accessibility: The planned EURR stablecoin, pegged 1:1 to the euro and designed to comply with the EU's MiCA regulation, will allow Portugal-based clients to move between euros and crypto assets within the Revolut app.
PRAGMA: The AI System Behind the Platform
Revolut Research serves as the institutional engine for PRAGMA, a transformer-based foundation model trained on approximately 40 billion banking events from Revolut's user base across multiple countries. Unlike traditional rule-based systems, PRAGMA consolidates transaction data, app usage, investment behavior, and support interactions into a single learning framework designed to operate across fraud detection, credit scoring, and product recommendations.
According to Revolut, the company trained PRAGMA with Nvidia and plans to showcase it at GTC 2026. The model is projected to power fraud detection and credit scoring for Revolut's customer base across 39 markets. In practical terms, the system is designed to spot unusual spending patterns, flag high-risk transfers, and assess creditworthiness in real time—often within milliseconds—before a fraudulent transaction clears.
According to Revolut's benchmarking tests, PRAGMA is designed to deliver a 64.7% improvement in fraud recall compared to the company's legacy specialized tools. The company also reports a 130% boost in credit scoring accuracy on the precision-recall area under the curve (PR-AUC) metric, which the company claims would allow it to extend loans to more users while maintaining lower default rates. Product recommendations are projected to improve by 41%, according to Revolut's internal testing.
What This Means for Residents
For Portugal-based customers, the planned benefits include fewer false-positive fraud alerts—meaning legitimate transactions are less likely to be blocked—and potentially faster approvals for credit products such as personal loans or overdrafts. Revolut's improved risk models are designed to distinguish between genuinely risky behavior and atypical but harmless patterns, such as a large one-time purchase or a sudden overseas transfer.
Revolut has also launched in-app call detection, which alerts users in real time if they receive a phone call while using the app that is not from an official Revolut number. This feature targets impersonation scams, a growing threat in Portugal and across Europe, where fraudsters use social engineering to trick victims into authorizing payments.
Revolut claims its automated systems currently detect more than 95% of scam attempts before they succeed. In 2024, the platform reported preventing over €700 million in global fraud losses, according to the company. A significant portion of Revolut's workforce operates in financial crime prevention roles, working to monitor transactions and respond to suspicious activity.
The EURR Stablecoin: Crypto Meets Compliance
Revolut has announced plans to launch the EURR, a euro-denominated stablecoin issued by Bridge Building S.A., a Stripe entity holding both electronic money institution (EMI) and crypto asset service provider (CASP) licenses under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. The EURR is planned for eligible customers in Portugal, Denmark, and Poland, with a phased rollout across the European Economic Area (EEA) scheduled for later in 2026, subject to operational and regulatory readiness.
According to Revolut's announcement, the stablecoin will be backed by reserves managed by Bridge in line with MiCA's requirements, which mandate that issuers hold 30% to 60% of reserves in deposits at EU commercial banks. Each EURR token is designed to maintain a value of €1, combining blockchain technology with the stability of a traditional fiat currency. It will be supported by multiple blockchain networks and external wallets, though Revolut has not yet disclosed which specific chains are integrated.
For users, the EURR is intended to function as a bridge between euros and other crypto assets within the Revolut app. Someone in Lisbon, for example, could convert euros to EURR, move those tokens to an external wallet or decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, and then return them to the app and convert back to euros—all within the Revolut ecosystem. This approach aims to simplify processes that traditionally require multiple steps on conventional crypto exchanges.
Revolut has indicated plans to develop stablecoins pegged to other currencies through distinct regulatory pathways and views the EURR as the first step in a broader strategy. The company reports more than 16 million crypto users globally and sees stablecoins as a way to deepen engagement among existing customers while attracting new ones seeking streamlined on-ramps to digital assets.
Regulatory Scrutiny and the ECB's Concerns
Despite MiCA compliance, the EURR operates in a regulatory environment marked by skepticism from the European Central Bank (ECB). ECB President Christine Lagarde has questioned the need for stablecoins that replicate instruments developed elsewhere—an implicit reference to dollar-denominated stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). She has warned that stablecoins pose risks to financial stability, particularly if issuers are not banks, because they can trigger mass redemption runs that transmit stress to underlying asset markets.
Lagarde has also expressed concern that widespread stablecoin adoption could siphon retail deposits away from commercial banks, raising funding costs and constraining lending capacity for mortgages and business loans. She added that in cases where stablecoins are issued jointly by EU and non-EU entities, investors may seek to withdraw funds where protections are strongest in the event of a run, creating uneven systemic risk.
In Portugal, the Banco de Portugal is the national authority responsible for authorizing CASPs under Law No. 69/2025, which incorporated MiCA into Portuguese legislation. The Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários (CMVM) co-supervises market conduct and investor protection. Revolut has already removed Tether (USDT) from its European app due to the token's non-compliance with MiCA rules, demonstrating the strictness of the regulatory regime in Portugal and across the European Union.
The ECB is also developing its own digital euro, with a public launch targeted for 2029. This central bank digital currency (CBDC) is intended to preserve monetary sovereignty and mitigate risks from private stablecoins. The coexistence of the EURR and the digital euro may create long-term uncertainty for private stablecoin platforms.
Competitive Strategy and Market Position
Revolut's focus on AI-powered financial services reflects a broader industry trend toward automation and personalized banking. The company continues to expand its customer base and market presence across Europe. Other fintechs—such as Nubank, Stripe, and payment networks Mastercard and Visa—are also developing financial AI models, though the specific comparative advantages of these different approaches remain to be independently evaluated over time.
Revolut's strategy represents a shift in European fintech toward AI-driven infrastructure and regulated digital assets. For Portuguese users, this approach offers both opportunities for enhanced financial services and considerations regarding regulatory oversight and consumer protection standards set by local and European authorities.
Practical Implications for Portugal Residents
For expats, investors, and long-term residents in Portugal, these announced developments carry several potential practical consequences:
• Security enhancements: When implemented, these systems are designed to reduce false-positive fraud blocks and potentially accelerate resolution for flagged transactions. The call detection feature is particularly relevant given increasing phone scam activity targeting Portuguese-speaking users.
• Credit access changes: If the improved risk scoring operates as projected, more users may qualify for personal loans, overdrafts, and credit cards than under previous assessment methods.
• Crypto regulatory compliance: The EURR, when launched, will operate under MiCA oversight by the Banco de Portugal and CMVM, providing Portuguese users with a regulated pathway for stablecoin transactions. Users should note that crypto transactions in Portugal may have tax implications that require reporting to Portuguese tax authorities—guidance on this can be obtained from the Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira (AT).
• Regulatory clarity: With USDT removed from the app and EURR planned for MiCA compliance, Portugal-based users can expect clearer legal status for the digital assets available through Revolut, compared to non-regulated alternatives.
The upcoming developments in Revolut's service offerings and the parallel launch of the ECB's digital euro will shape the evolution of financial innovation for Portugal residents, with broader implications for remittances, cross-border transactions, and access to digital financial services across the European Economic Area.
