Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, is buying Lithuania's Saldo Bank to gain a full EU banking license. According to the Financial Times, Payward would be the first crypto firm to buy a bank in Europe.
Payward is the holding company behind Kraken, a centralized crypto exchange founded in San Francisco in 2011. The platform handles trading and custody of digital assets. Saldo Bank, by contrast, is a small digital specialist bank that issues consumer and business loans and offers term deposits. Saldo received its EU banking license in 2021 and operates in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany. Through passporting, the license also applies in the Netherlands. The acquisition runs through the Finnish holding company Saldo Finance Oy. Payward signed the binding agreement in October 2026. The group did not disclose a purchase price and expects the deal to close in 2027.
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Saldo is small, its banking license is not
According to CoinDesk, Saldo reported total assets of EUR 163.9 million (about USD 180 million) at the end of 2025. That is an increase of 22.7% from the prior year. By European standards, Saldo is therefore a comparatively small bank. Its business volume hardly explains the purchase. Rather, the license is what matters. That is because an EU banking license permits deposit-taking and also applies in other member states through passporting. A license in one country is enough to offer services in other EU states without separate approval. Saldo already has a presence in five European markets this way. A buyer thus skips building a license from scratch.
The product range is lean, yet it covers the core building blocks of a bank. Retail term deposits are available in all markets. Saldo issues consumer loans in Lithuania, Finland and Sweden. It also offers secured and unsecured SME loans in Lithuania and Finland. In addition, the bank already offers a credit card in Finland and plans to launch it in Sweden in 2027. For a crypto company, however, the infrastructure behind it matters more. Saldo has full SEPA access. Fintechs in Finland and Germany also receive embedded lending, meaning loans they build directly into their own products.
Payward and Saldo signed a binding agreement, not a mere letter of intent. The buyer confirmed the deal in its own announcement. However, the parties did not disclose the seller or the purchase price. Furthermore, the relevant authorities must approve the deal before the expected closing in 2027. Saldo President Jarkko Mäensivu framed the step in the same announcement. "A banking license is only as valuable as what you build on top of it," he said.
Payward Banking moves from e-money institution to full bank
The group already runs its own financial business under the Payward Banking brand. According to the company, the unit has issued more than USD 2 billion in loans to date. Lending is therefore not new territory for the group. Moreover, the unit holds a limited master account at the Federal Reserve. In Europe, by contrast, the business relies on an EMI license from the Central Bank of Ireland. Kraken already operates in the EU under this license. Such an e-money institution, though, cannot take bank deposits.
Payward wants Saldo to fill this gap. Once the deal closes, Payward Banking plans to offer interest on deposits, lending products and banking-as-a-service in Europe. Passporting, card issuing and SME loans are part of the plan too. With banking-as-a-service, a licensed bank provides its infrastructure to third-party firms. These firms then build their own accounts, cards or loans on top of it. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi told the Financial Times the goal is a system combining cash, crypto, tokenized stocks and credit. Customers should be able to borrow or lend against their assets without selling them. Consequently, a crypto investor could pledge their holdings rather than sell them.
"A regulated EU bank is the piece that lets us serve European clients the way a primary financial institution should." - Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO, Payward
In the EU, the crypto services themselves remain subject to the MiCA framework. The banking license covers a different area, namely deposits and lending. As a result, Payward brings crypto and banking together under one corporate roof in Europe.
Trust charter in the US, full bank in the EU
In the US, the path looks different. In May 2026, Payward applied for a national trust bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The agency supervises nationally chartered US banks. It remains unclear whether the OCC has granted the charter. Coinbase and Ripple have already received conditional approvals for such charters. These allow custody and transaction services, but deposit-taking remains off limits to the crypto firms. In other words, a trust charter is closer to a custody license than a full banking license.
Nevertheless, even this limited opening faces resistance. In October 2026, the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) sued the OCC. This association represents small US community banks. It argues that charters for crypto firms exceed the agency's authority. The defendant is the regulator itself. The OCC declined to comment. With the lawsuit, the banking lobby ultimately takes the fight over new competitors to court.
In the EU, Payward sidesteps this dispute. Instead of applying for its own license, the company is buying an existing bank along with its deposit business. Sethi told the Financial Times that customer demand drove the move. Among customers' biggest requests, he said, is the wish for products and services like those of any other bank. Supervisors still have to approve the change of ownership, but the license itself has existed since 2021.
Saldo Bank joins a series of Payward acquisitions
Earlier, in April 2026, Payward announced the acquisition of derivatives exchange Bitnomial for USD 550 million. The deal brought licenses from the US derivatives regulator CFTC as an exchange (DCM), clearinghouse (DCO) and futures broker (FCM). This lets Bitnomial list, clear and broker futures contracts for clients. As a result, trading, clearing and brokerage now sit in one place at Payward. A month later came Reap Technologies of Hong Kong for up to USD 600 million. Reap provides stablecoin payments and card issuing. Payward paid in cash and shares, based on an equity valuation of USD 20 billion for itself.
Overall, Payward is buying licenses and infrastructure in 2026 rather than building them itself. Bitnomial covers US derivatives, while Reap covers payments in Asia. Finally, Saldo supplies the European banking business. Payward Banking plans to offer card issuing in Europe after closing. Through Reap, the service is already part of the offering in Asia. In the announcement, Sethi did not describe Payward Banking as a new ambition. Instead, he said the company had built the business license by license and market by market. The price of the European piece remains undisclosed for now.
