Revolut will haul hundreds of graduates and interns into the office next year, as the digital bank moves away from its “remote-first” policy that has long been used to lure new recruits.

The London-headquartered fintech company had previously allowed its young trainees to choose whether to work from home or Revolut’s offices, reflecting flexible working arrangements offered to all other staff. That included the option of working abroad for 120 days of the year, with the company saying it trusts employees to “explore new cultures while staying productive and connected”.

That level of flexibility has long been a key recruitment tool for Revolut, which touts itself as different from other fintech firms, saying on its recruitment website: “No ping pong tables or bean bag chairs, just benefits you actually want.”

However, Revolut is changing those rules for its 2027 cohort of graduate and interns, saying it recognised that “the early stages of a career benefit from in-person collaboration and mentoring”.

Instead, they will be hired on a hybrid basis and required to work in a Revolut office, wherever they are employed, at least three days a week. That will affect hundreds of junior trainees, as Revolut has hired more than 300 grads and interns this year.

But Revolut said this was not the start of a rollback of flexible staff benefits for its wider 11,000-strong global workforce, most of whom are employed out of its new headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf.

Revolut – which has 13 million customers in the UK and was valued at $75bn (£55bn) last year – said in a statement: “Revolut operates a remote-first model across the world. We also recognise that the early stages of a career benefit from in-person collaboration and mentoring, so all intern and graduate roles in our 2027 talent programmes are hybrid, with successful candidates to the programme expected in the office at least three days a week.

“This applies to the 2027 talent programmes only. For all other employees, our remote-first policy is unchanged.”

Sally Hall, a senior consultant at the employment law firm Bellevue Law, said: “From someone that has spent a huge amount of my professional career working remotely, I can totally understand the need to bring graduates in. The best way to learn is to be a sponge and working remotely makes this so much more challenging. However, the senior people need to be in the office too, or there is nothing to absorb”.

The company, which finally secured a fully fledged UK banking licence after an unusual five-year wait earlier this year, said any successful graduates hired on to full-time contracts would benefit from its remote-first policy like the rest of its workforce. That includes the work from abroad policy, once they have passed their probation period.

Its decision to changes it policy for young trainees, which was first reported by the Financial Times, puts Revolut more closely in line with other large banks, which tightened their work from home policies after the Covid pandemic, particularly for younger staff.

That includes JP Morgan, whose chief executive Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg last year, “it is an apprenticeship system … you can’t learn working from your basement.”