Payward, the parent company of the Kraken crypto exchange, is buying a bank in the European Union. On 14 October 2026, Payward announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Finance Oy, a Finnish holding company whose subsidiary, Saldo Bank UAB, is a digital-first specialised bank licensed in Lithuania, according to Payward's press release.
The deal is expected to close in 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
What Payward is buying
Saldo Bank holds Specialised Bank Licence No. 8, issued on 26 October 2021, according to the bank's 2025 audited financial statements. Those statements show total assets of about €162.9 million and retail deposits of about €136.9 million at the end of 2025, with 86 employees. The bank reported a net profit of about €1 million for 2025, after a loss of about €2.4 million in 2024.
Payward describes Saldo as bringing a footprint across four operating markets plus a passport into the Netherlands. Saldo offers retail term deposits in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany, 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 runs embedded lending partnerships with fintech companies in Finland and Germany.
"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," said Jarkko Mäensivu, President of Saldo Bank.
Why a crypto group wants an EU bank
Payward frames the deal as the next layer in what it calls Payward Banking. The group says it already has a Federal Reserve limited purpose master account in the United States and an e-money institution licence from the Central Bank of Ireland, and that it has originated over $2 billion in loans. Kraken separately secured its MiCA licence from the Central Bank of Ireland in June 2025.
When the deal closes, Payward expects to offer European customers, subject to regulatory approvals:
- interest on deposits, building on Saldo's existing retail term deposits;
- lending products, including secured and unsecured SME loans, consumer lending and credit cards;
- banking as a service for partners, covering passporting, card issuance, SME lending, full SEPA payments access and embedded lending.
"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," said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward.
Payward says the work now is to execute the integration and obtain regulatory approval, and that both are underway.
What compliance teams should watch
Payward has not said which authorities will approve the deal, and no approval has been published yet. The release also says nothing about how crypto activity will sit alongside the bank's deposit and lending business. Points to watch as the deal moves towards closing:
- the regulatory approvals Payward obtains, and any conditions attached;
- how Saldo's specialised bank licence and its passports are used for the new Payward products;
- how the combined group separates crypto services from deposit taking and lending, particularly under the EU's MiCA regime.
Earlier this month, Payward and MEXC also signalled their intent to explore broader collaboration.
