Digital challenger bank Revolut has chosen Singapore as its first entry into the Asian market. And now, after a successful beta period during which the company gained 30,000 new members and learned valuable lessons about the Singapore market and culture, Revolut is ready for business in Asia.

As of this week, Revolut Singapore customers will be able to instantly send and receive funds to and from fellow Revolut customers in Singapore, the U.K., Europe, and Australia for free. Revolut Singapore customers will also benefit from instant spending notifications, access to the real exchange rate in 150+ countries for fairer overseas spending, free international ATM withdrawals, and in-app currency exchange. PFM features like bill-splitting, round up payments, and budgeting and analytics will also be included.

“The journey to Singapore so far has been both exciting and challenging,” Revolut Head of Marketing and Communications Chad West wrote at the company blog. “For every new market into which we expand, there are different rules and regulations. The challenge for us is to build things that work as we, and our customers, want them to, while adhering to official guidelines. Not always easy, as you might imagine.”

The company’s expansion to Asia comes as Revolut fortifies its U.S. business via a partnership with Mastercard that will bring Revolut cards to the U.S. by year’s end. Other big deals for Revolut of late feature the company collaborating with Xero to enable real-time expense monitoring, teaming up with DriveWealth to offer commission-free trades to its cardholders, and working with financial API provider TrueLayer to support secure access of financial data via open banking.

This month Revolut announced that it had hired JP Morgan to manage its $500 million funding round, as well as issue the company a convertible loan for $1 billion. The company currently has more than $336 million in capital from investors including Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, DST Global, TriplePoint Capital, and Mastercard Start Path.

Founded in 2015 by Vlad Yatsenko (CTO) and Nikolay Storonsky (CEO), Revolut demonstrated its platform that same year at FinovateEurope. Since inception, the company has served more than eight million customers, and processed 350+ million transactions valued at more than $44 billion (€40 billion).

Challenger bank Revolut has hired investment bank JP Morgan to conduct its $500 million funding round and issue it a $1 billion convertible loan, which will turn into shares if Revolut receives a U.S. banking license, reports Ruby Hinchliffe of Fintech Futures, Finovate’s sister publication.

Sky News sources revealed that Revolut is trying to achieve a new valuation of between $5 billion and $10 billion from the capital-raising, which could make it the most valuable fintech in Europe if it hits $10 billion, ahead of Monzo, Transferwise, Klarna and N26.

Currently the most valuable fintech in Europe is Adyen, a Netherlands-based data analytics firm valued at $8.3 billion.

It is not clear yet which of Revolut’s existing partners will be participating in the round. The challenger’s most recent partnership with Visa will see it expand to 24 new countries, as well as hire 3,500 new staff.

Having accumulated almost eight million customers since it was founded five years ago, and now on track to have raised almost $2 billion in its lifetime if it secures the full $1.5 billion from investors, Revolut is fast-becoming the top U.K.-based challenger bank.

However such exponential growth, with the bank quadrupling its revenue in 2018 and saying it will triple it again this year, yields greater regulatory warnings.

The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority has targeted faster-growing companies in the U.K. like Revolut, requiring them to have more rigorous stress-testing and prove evidence of greater challenges by board members to business strategy.

Revolut is also undergoing a significant management restructure, following accusations of alleged links to the Kremlin.

Currently gearing up to announce its new chairman Martin Gilbert, vice chairman of Standard Life Aberdeen, the challenger has also lined up former boss at Goldman Sachs, Michael Sherwood, and has already hired a senior executive from Metro Bank.

Revolut debuted at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. The company’s CEO and founder Nikolay Storonsky showed off the app’s money transfer capabilities that help users avoid banking fees without actually using a bank. The company has made recent headlines in fintech news for its partnership with Bottomline and for its appointment of new CEOs in Lithuania and Ireland.

Revolut has withdrawn its application for an e-banking license in the grand duchy in a shift towards Ireland, according to The Telegraph on Sunday, reports Sharon Kimathi of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The news outlet notes that Revolut stopped its Luxembourg application after questions about its compliance systems were raised in the Chamber of Deputies by the MP Laurent Mosar (CSV) in April, which Revolut has refuted.

Without citing any company names, Moser stated in a parliamentary question to the finance minister, Pierre Gramegna (DP), that: “Fintech companies are subject to a host of national and international rules. However, it would seem that these rules are not always respected by fintech companies, so that some of them get their approval, even though they do not meet financial and banking regulatory requirements. According to my information, at least one major company that has recently applied for approval, would be flagged in its country of origin for non-compliance with existing regulations as well as for non-transparency.”

Mosar asked Gramegna what the finance ministry was doing to ensure compliance with fintech rules. Gramegna responded that the Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (CSSF) and not the finance ministry oversaw regulating financial institutions.

The Telegraph reported that the CSSF began conducting spot checks on financial technology firms headquartered in the country earlier this year to verify that board and staff members were truly located in the grand duchy.

The neobank needs regulatory approval from one of the EU27 in order to maintain its access to the single European market after Brexit.

Revolut told news outlets that it did not withdrawal its application due to questions about its compliance technology. Rather it took a “strategic decision” to focus on its license application in Ireland. A spokesman said the firm “had a very positive and open dialogue” with the CSSF, as well as the promotion body Luxembourg for Finance.

Founded in 2013, Revolut demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2015. Nikolay Storonsky is CEO.