Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has signed an agreement to acquire Finnish holding company Saldo Finance Oy, owner of Lithuania-licensed Saldo Bank.
London's trading industry is coming home!
While financial terms were undisclosed, the deal, expected to close in 2027, positions Payward as one of the first major cryptocurrency exchange operators to directly own and operate a fully licensed European Union bank.
"Payward Banking is not a new ambition – it is a business we have been building license by license, market by market," said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward.
"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."
Saldo Bank operates in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, and Germany, with passporting rights in the Netherlands. It offers retail term deposits across all markets, consumer loans in Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden, and SME loans in Lithuania and Finland.
Its credit card is active in Finland and expanding to Sweden by 2027. It also provides SEPA payment access and embedded lending services for fintechs in Finland and Germany.
Reversing the Neobank Playbook
The acquisition marks the latest step in an aggressive consolidation campaign under co-CEO Arjun Sethi in the EU, building on Payward’s MiFID, MiCA and EMI authorizations.
If completed, it would add a licensed banking layer to an intended integrated fiat-and-crypto platform spanning trading, payments and credit.
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While neobanks like Revolut built massive user bases via payments before adding crypto and derivatives, crypto-native firms are reversing the route to capture full wallet share.
The move mirrors similar multi-asset strategies across the CFD sector, such as NAGA's super-app ambitions aimed at maximising lifetime customer value under one roof, though Payward is also building the infrastructure for other financial firms, not just a consumer super app.
However, operating across multiple regulated verticals presents severe operational exposure.
Expanding into full-scale banking increases cross-border European regulatory scrutiny and widens the attack surface for financial crime and cyber attacks, risks recently highlighted by the security vulnerabilities suffered by Revolut.
