Kraken’s Parent Company Buys a European Bank to Start Paying Interest on Crypto Deposits

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• Payward, Kraken’s parent company, signed a definitive agreement on October 14, 2026 to acquire Saldo Finance Oy, the Finnish holding company behind Saldo Bank
• Saldo Bank is licensed in Lithuania and operates across five European markets: Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany directly, plus passported access into the Netherlands
• Payward plans to use the acquired banking license to offer deposit interest, SME and consumer lending, credit cards, and banking-as-a-service infrastructure for fintech partners, pending regulatory approval

Payward, the parent company behind crypto exchange Kraken, announced on October 14, 2026 that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Finance Oy, a Finnish holding company whose subsidiary, Saldo Bank UAB, holds a specialized banking license in Lithuania. That license, combined with EU passporting rules, lets Saldo Bank serve retail and small-to-medium enterprise customers across Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany directly, with passport access extending into the Netherlands as well, giving the bank reach across five European markets in total.

Saldo Bank already operates a functioning deposit and lending business ahead of the acquisition, offering retail term deposits in every one of its operating markets, consumer lending in Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, and SME lending in Lithuania and Finland. The bank also launched a credit card product in Finland, with a planned expansion of that card into Sweden expected in 2027, and it runs embedded lending partnerships in Finland and Germany, where other fintech companies plug into Saldo’s lending infrastructure to offer their own branded credit products.

Payward’s stated ambitions for the acquisition go beyond simply absorbing Saldo’s existing book of business. Once the deal closes, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, Payward plans to use the banking license to offer interest on deposits for assets held on its own platform, expand into secured and unsecured SME and consumer lending alongside credit cards, and build out banking-as-a-service infrastructure, including passporting rights, card issuance, SME lending and full SEPA payments access, that other fintech partners could embed into their own products.

Jarkko Mäensivu, President of Saldo Bank, framed the deal around what Payward’s resources could add to the license itself, saying “a banking license is only as valuable as what you build on top of it.” Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward, signaled broader geographic ambitions beyond Europe, saying “we are starting in the EU, and the ambition is global,” suggesting the Saldo acquisition is intended as a template Payward could eventually replicate in other regions rather than a one-off European banking play.

The acquisition continues a broader trend of crypto exchanges acquiring traditional banking licenses and infrastructure to offer services that sit closer to conventional finance, such as interest-bearing deposits and lending, rather than remaining purely focused on crypto trading. Payward’s press release did not disclose the purchase price for the deal, and the announcement, published on Payward’s official newsroom, said the transaction is expected to close sometime in 2027.