Payward acquires European Bank after receiving crypto license in the UAE

Payward, the parent company or Kraken crypto exchange has signed an agreement to acquire Saldo Finance Oy a Finnish holding company whose subsidiary, Saldo Bank UAB (“Saldo Bank”), is a digital-first specialized bank licensed in Lithuania.

Already Payward Banking has a federal reserve limited purpose master account in the US, and an EMI license from the Central Bank of Ireland. Up till now, Payward has originated $2 billion in loans.

According to Payward, an EU banking license extends that stack into Europe’s largest regulated market, and Salo Bank brings that license as well as a footprint across four operating markets plus a passport into the Netherlands, deposit products already live in market, lending infrastructure, and a team that has built banking-as-a-service capabilities for other fintech.

When the acquisition happens sometime in 2027, European customers, Payward Banking will be able to offer interest on deposits. real yield on assets held in the system, building on the retail term deposits Saldo Bank already offers in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, and Germany.

It will also be able to offer lending products, as well as secured and unsecured SME loans, consumer lending, and credit cards, products Saldo has already built and is scaling.

Additionally on offer will be banking-as-a-service. Passporting, card issuance, and SME lending capabilities, plus full SEPA payments access and embedded lending infrastructure for partners building on top of Payward.

Saldo Bank today serves retail and SME customers across its licensed markets. It holds retail term deposits in every market, consumer lending in Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, and SME lending in Lithuania and Finland. Its credit card launched in Finland and is expected to launch in Sweden in 2027. It also operates embedded lending partnerships in Finland and Germany, with fintech companies using Saldo’s lending infrastructure for their own customers.

Jarkko Mäensivu, President of Saldo Bank, put it simply, “A banking license is only as valuable as what you build on top of it. Payward has spent years assembling regulated infrastructure across the US and Europe. Saldo Bank’s infrastructure was built to be Europe-wide, enabling innovative banking solutions including embedded services for other fintech. Combining these capabilities with our five-market footprint means far more customers can access the full range of what both businesses offer – banking, payments, and lending in one place.”

Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward, framed it saying, “Payward Banking is not a new ambition, it is a business we have been building license by license, market by market. A regulated EU bank is the piece that lets us serve European clients the way a primary financial institution should: one place to hold assets, move them freely, and put them to work. We believe whoever owns that relationship earns the right to serve everything around it. We are starting in the EU, and the ambition is global.”

Could Payward do the same in the UAE? Recently Kraken, through its parent company Payward, received Full Market Approval from the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), allowing the firm to operate as a regulated Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) in Dubai and serve retail, professional, and institutional investors. The authorization covers Crypto broker dealer services and Management & Investment Services, representing the final stage of VARA’s licensing process.