Kraken Parent Payward Agrees to Acquire Saldo Bank for EU Banking Push

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, signed a definitive agreement on October 14 to acquire Saldo Finance Oy, the Finnish holding company that owns Lithuania-licensed digital lender Saldo Bank UAB. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and Payward expects the transaction to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and standard closing conditions. Saldo Bank currently operates across Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, and Germany while holding a banking passport into the Netherlands, offering retail and small-business customers term deposits, loans, and a live Finnish credit card. Pending regulatory sign-off, Payward plans to use the bank to offer interest on customer deposits in the European Union, expand consumer and business lending, and provide banking-as-a-service infrastructure including SEPA payments access and card issuance to third-party firms. The planned acquisition builds on Payward's existing regulatory footprint, which includes a limited-purpose Federal Reserve master account secured by Kraken's banking arm in March, an electronic money institution license from the Central Bank of Ireland, and more than $2B in originated loans. "We are starting in the EU, and the ambition is global." — Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward.