Payward buys Lithuania's Saldo Bank and gets an EU banking license

Payward, the parent company of the crypto exchange Kraken, has signed a deal to buy Lithuania's Saldo Bank and with it an EU banking license. The price was not disclosed, and closing is planned for 2027.

What happened

Payward announced the deal on Wednesday, October 14. Formally, it is acquiring Saldo Finance Oy, a Finnish holding company that owns Saldo Bank UAB. That is a digital bank with a Lithuanian license obtained in 2021.

According to CoinDesk, Saldo Bank's assets stood at 163.9 million euros at the end of 2025, about $180 million. They grew 22.7% over the year. The bank offers retail term deposits, loans for individuals and businesses, and payment services.

The Financial Times reports that Payward will become the first crypto company to buy a bank in Europe. The deal value is unknown, and completion depends on regulatory approvals.

What Payward gets

Saldo Bank's license works in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany. The bank also holds a passport for the Netherlands. In three of those countries it already serves customers with term deposits.

After closing, the Payward Banking unit will be able to pay interest on deposits, issue loans and release cards. The company also counts on banking-as-a-service for small and mid-sized businesses.

"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."

- Arjun Sethi, Payward co-CEO, from the deal announcement of October 14, 2026

Earlier purchases and the Payward business

Saldo is not the company's first big deal this year. In April Payward bought the derivatives exchange Bitnomial for $550 million, and in May the Asian payments firm Reap Technologies for $600 million.

• The company's banking arm has already originated more than $2 billion in loans.
• It holds a limited-purpose master account in the US Federal Reserve payment system.
• In Ireland the company has an electronic money institution license.

In August Payward launched a debit card in the US through the Krak app. Customers spend crypto and fiat and receive up to 2% cashback in dollars or in Bitcoin. Separately, Kraken pushed its IPO back to the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest, after a confidential filing last November.

The US regulatory backdrop

In May Payward applied for a national trust charter from the OCC, the US federal bank regulator. Coinbase and Ripple have already received conditional approval for such charters, which let holders custody client assets but not take deposits.

This month the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC. The group argues that the regulator exceeded its authority by granting such charters to crypto firms. In Europe Payward sidesteps that dispute by buying a bank that already holds a full license, deposits included.

For Kraken's EU clients it means the exchange is gradually turning into a banking platform. The first new products will appear only after approvals in 2027.