Kraken parent Payward has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Finance Oy, the Finnish holding company behind Lithuania-based Saldo Bank UAB, extending its regulated financial infrastructure deeper into European banking. The transaction would give Payward control of an EU-licensed specialized bank if regulatory approvals are secured and the acquisition closes as expected in 2027.
According to Payward’s official October 14 announcement, Saldo operates in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany and has passported capabilities into the Netherlands. Separately, the Bank of Lithuania’s official register confirms that Saldo Bank has held a Lithuanian specialized banking licence since October 26, 2021, covering activities including deposits, payment accounts, money remittance and payment instruments.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal remains an acquisition agreement rather than a completed transfer of the banking licence or regulated business, and Payward says integration work and the regulatory approval process are currently underway.
Saldo Adds Deposits, Lending and Banking Infrastructure
Saldo already offers retail term deposits across its four operating markets, consumer lending in Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, and SME lending in Lithuania and Finland. Its Finnish business also offers a credit card, with a Swedish launch planned for 2027. Payward intends to build on those existing banking capabilities rather than create every product from scratch after closing.
Subject to approval, Payward expects the acquisition to support interest-bearing deposits, consumer and SME lending, card issuance, SEPA payments and banking-as-a-service infrastructure. Those products are planned capabilities of the combined business and should not be treated as services already available to Kraken customers today.
The acquisition fits a broader strategy of controlling regulated infrastructure rather than depending entirely on external financial counterparties. Payward completed its acquisition of Reap in July, adding stablecoin payments and card issuance, while Bitnomial gave it a CFTC-regulated derivatives stack in the United States. That expansion is already visible in Payward’s push into stablecoin payment infrastructure and its use of Bitnomial as a regulated derivatives gateway. Saldo would add deposit-taking and conventional credit infrastructure to that vertically integrated model.
Banking Licence Extends Payward’s European Stack
The banking acquisition would sit alongside, rather than replace, Payward’s existing European crypto authorizations. Kraken already operates in the EU under MiCA authorization through Ireland and maintains separate regulated infrastructure for derivatives and e-money services. A banking licence expands the activities available within the group, but it is legally distinct from a MiCA crypto-asset service provider authorization.
That distinction matters as European crypto businesses increasingly rely on passported regulatory structures to serve multiple countries. The same framework has shaped how exchanges secure EU-wide market access under MiCA, although a specialized banking licence carries a different regulatory perimeter and permits activities that a CASP authorization alone does not provide.
Payward ultimately wants banking, trading, payments, lending and digital assets to operate through a more unified financial relationship. Owning regulated banking infrastructure could reduce reliance on third-party providers for some fiat services, but the acquisition itself does not eliminate external counterparties or automatically make every Kraken product a banking service.
The immediate development is therefore narrower than a completed merger between crypto and banking. Payward has agreed to acquire a functioning EU-licensed bank with deposits, lending and payments infrastructure, but the strategic benefits remain conditional on regulatory approval, closing in 2027 and successful integration afterward. Until then, Saldo Bank remains a separately licensed institution and the proposed expansion of Payward Banking remains prospective.
Emma Lawson writes about the pressure points where crypto meets the outside world: regulation, exchanges, macro policy, tokenized assets and geopolitical risk. From the US, she follows the decisions and events that can change how capital moves, how platforms operate and how digital assets are treated by institutions.
Her work is direct and evidence-led. Emma is less interested in legal theatre than in practical consequences: what changed, who is affected, which risks are real and where the market may be overreacting. She brings a steady voice to complex stories, especially when regulation, infrastructure and global markets start pulling in the same direction.