Revolut Business vs Vivid Business: FX Allowances, Currency IBANs, and DATEV Integration

This is the sharpest contrast between the two platforms. Revolut Bank UAB holds a full banking license from the ECB, regulated by the Bank of Lithuania, with deposits protected up to €100,000 per depositor under Lithuania's statutory VAS deposit guarantee scheme. This is the same level of protection offered by traditional European banks.

Vivid Business is licensed as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) by Luxembourg's CSSF. Customer funds are safeguarded through Stichting Vivid Money — held separately from Vivid's own funds, but not covered by any deposit guarantee scheme. If Vivid were to fail, funds would be returned from the safeguarded pool, but there is no statutory €100,000 insurance backstop.

For businesses holding significant operating balances, this distinction matters. Revolut's ECB banking license provides stronger formal protection. Vivid's EMI status is comparable to Finom, Wise, and Wamo — adequate for most businesses but not equivalent to deposit insurance.

Revolut provides accounts in 30 currencies, which can be held, sent, and received as balances within the platform. These are currency wallet balances rather than individual unique IBANs for each currency. Clients receiving EUR payments use Revolut's shared EUR IBAN infrastructure, not a unique per-currency IBAN.

Vivid's approach is fundamentally different: it provides a unique IBAN for each of its 22 supported currencies. This means you can give clients a dedicated USD IBAN, GBP IBAN, CHF IBAN, and so on — each receiving currency arriving in its own distinct account without pooling. Local EUR IBANs are available in six countries (DE, FR, IT, LU, NL, ES).

For businesses that frequently receive payments in multiple specific currencies from counterparties who prefer local IBANs, Vivid's 22-currency IBAN structure is a meaningful operational advantage. Revolut's 30-currency wallets are more flexible for payments but do not provide the same IBAN uniqueness per currency.

Revolut includes monthly FX allowances per plan: €1,000–1,500 on Basic, €15,000 on Grow, €60,000 on Scale. Within the allowance, FX is free. Beyond it, a 0.6% markup applies during market hours (1% on weekends). SWIFT transfers are available from Grow (5/month) and Scale (25/month), with no free SWIFT on Basic.

Vivid's FX model is similar in structure: 0% within the monthly allowance (€10,000 on Basic, €30,000 on Pro, €70,000 on Enterprise), with a 0.5% overage fee — slightly lower than Revolut's 0.6%. Vivid includes outgoing SWIFT quotas on all paid plans (5/month on Basic, 10/month on Pro, 15/month on Enterprise), with a €5 overage fee. There is no weekend FX surcharge.

For SWIFT-intensive businesses on lower-cost plans, Vivid's inclusion of SWIFT from Basic (€6.90/month) compares favorably to Revolut requiring Grow (€35/month) for SWIFT access. The 0.5% vs 0.6% FX gap is modest but meaningful at high volumes.

Vivid Business is built for the German accounting ecosystem. It integrates natively with DATEV and Sevdesk — the dominant accounting and bookkeeping platforms in German-speaking markets. Basic plan users get DATEV export; paid plans include unlimited receipt uploads and full DATEV automation. For a German SME using DATEV for tax filing and Sevdesk for invoicing, Vivid's native integration eliminates manual export workflows.

Revolut Business integrates with Xero and QuickBooks — the dominant accounting platforms in the UK and global markets. These integrations are available on all plans, with Open API access from Grow onward. Revolut does not natively support DATEV or Sevdesk, though CSV exports can be imported manually.

For German-speaking companies using DATEV, Vivid wins outright. For companies on Xero or QuickBooks, or those needing broad global accounting integration, Revolut is the stronger choice.

Revolut Business operates in 30+ countries across the EU, EEA, and UK. This makes it one of the most geographically flexible neobanks, suitable for companies with distributed international teams and operations across multiple continents.

Vivid Business is available in 30+ European countries and provides local EUR IBANs in six: Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Spain. Its accounting integration focus (DATEV, Sevdesk), German-language support, and local IBAN structure position it squarely within the German-speaking SME market. Outside this ecosystem, Vivid's distinctive advantages become less relevant.

For a Munich-based GmbH with German clients and a DATEV-integrated accountant, Vivid delivers more native value. For a pan-European or UK-based team managing operations across multiple countries, Revolut's broader reach is more practical.