* Revolut hiring more than 600 staff across Western Europe

* Hiring plans including 400 employees in France

* Revolut already has EU banking licence in Lithuania

* Clients in some European countries to be moved to French

entity

By Elizabeth Howcroft and Inti Landauro

PARIS, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Britain's Revolut said on Monday

it had secured a French banking licence, marking a significant

step in the fintech's European expansion plans and a development

its CEO Nik Storonsky has previously said could help it gain a

U.S. licence.

London-based Revolut, which plans to make Paris its "Western

Europe HQ" and shift customers away from its Lithuanian entity,

has emerged as the largest and most successful of the European

challengers to traditional banks which sprang up in the 2010s.

In France, where its licence was granted by the ACPR banking

regulator and the European Central Bank, it competes with the

digital arms of the country's biggest banks, including Societe

Generale's BoursoBank.

Revolut can already offer banking services in the European

Union by "passporting" its Lithuanian licence, but being

regulated in France would also allow it to offer services

tailored to local customers including loans and regulated

savings products, the company told Reuters in April.

Its profit has so far been driven by fee income and crypto, but

it is looking to increase its lending and other products.

Revolut, which received a British banking licence in March, has

already pledged to spend $1.1 billion on expanding in France,

hired former SocGen CEO Frederic Oudea as its Western Europe

chairman and signed a 10-year lease in Paris.

It said on Monday it plans to hire more than 600 people

across Western Europe, of which 400 will be in France.

Customers in France will be transferred to the French entity

first, followed by Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain,

said Revolut, which has more than 75 million customers but no

physical branches.

It has started a share sale at a $115 billion valuation, a

source said in July, which would make it worth more than banks

like SocGen and Britain's Barclays ( BCS ).