Kraken Parent Payward to Buy Lithuania's Saldo Bank, Becoming the First Crypto Firm to Own a European Bank

Published October 14, 2026, 16:40 UTC. Based on Payward's announcement of the Saldo Bank acquisition agreement, dated October 14, 2026, and secondary reporting from CoinDesk, Cointelegraph and crypto.news dated October 14, 2026.

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has signed a definitive agreement to buy Lithuania's Saldo Bank, taking the exchange operator a step away from closing a deal no crypto company has ever completed. If regulators approve the transaction, Payward would become the first crypto firm to own a bank in Europe, according to the Financial Times. The acquisition, announced on October 14, would hand Payward a regulated European Union banking license and a ready-made deposit and lending business across five European markets. Payward did not disclose the purchase price and expects the deal to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

The agreement covers Saldo Finance Oy and its Lithuanian bank

The deal is structured around Saldo Finance Oy, a Finnish holding company whose subsidiary, Saldo Bank UAB, operates as a specialized bank licensed in Lithuania. Payward announced the agreement on October 14 and confirmed its plans to fold the bank's lending, deposit and payment infrastructure into its financial services business, according to crypto.news. The transaction remains a proposal until regulators sign off, and the company said launch timelines for any new banking services would depend on regulatory permissions, customer eligibility and the completion of the planned integration. Saldo Bank's license is not a new authorization obtained through this deal: the European Central Bank granted it a specialized banking license in October 2021, with the Bank of Lithuania acting as its regulator.

A first for the crypto industry in Europe

The Financial Times reported that the acquisition would make Payward the first cryptocurrency company to buy a bank in Europe, a milestone in the industry's push to compete directly with traditional lenders. The timing is not accidental: CoinDesk reported in July that Kraken had been seeking a banking license in Lithuania, and the Saldo purchase effectively lets Payward buy rather than build that license. Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi framed the deal as the missing piece of the company's banking strategy, saying a regulated EU bank is what lets the company serve European clients the way a primary financial institution should, with one place to hold assets, move them freely and put them to work. Saldo Bank president Jarkko Maensivu said the acquisition would connect the lender's established operations with Payward's regulated financial infrastructure, adding that a banking license is only as valuable as what is built on top of it.

What Payward gets: deposits, loans, cards and euro payments

The acquisition would let Payward offer European customers interest-bearing bank deposits, consumer and business loans, card services and euro payments, products it cannot currently offer directly. Saldo Bank operates across Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany, and its authorization is passported into the Netherlands, giving Payward immediate reach across five European markets. According to the announcement, Saldo holds retail term deposits across its four operating markets, offers consumer lending in Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, and business lending in Lithuania and Finland. Its credit card service has launched in Finland, with a Swedish launch expected in 2027. The bank also brings banking-as-a-service capabilities used by fintech companies, automated loan assessments, embedded financing arrangements and access to the Single Euro Payments Area, the payment network that supports euro transfers between participating banks.

Borrow against crypto without selling it

One of the most consequential possibilities is credit secured by crypto itself. Payward plans to let customers borrow cash against their crypto or tokenized stock holdings without selling the underlying assets, according to the announcement's coverage, a feature Sethi said customers had requested. Institutional clients could pledge digital assets as collateral to access funds while keeping their positions intact. The capability matters because it bridges the gap between a brokerage-style crypto account and a full-service bank: a trader who holds Bitcoin or tokenized equities could treat them like securities collateral at a traditional lender. The announcement did not provide a timetable for connecting these products to Saldo Bank's existing deposit or credit services, so the feature remains a plan rather than a live product.

The $180 million bank behind the deal

Saldo is a small but growing institution. The bank held 163.9 million euros, about $180 million, in total assets at the end of 2025, up 22.7 percent from a year earlier, according to figures from The Banks reported by CoinDesk. That size explains the structure of the deal: Payward is acquiring an established license, a customer book and a working credit business, not balance-sheet heft. Payward did not respond to CoinDesk's request for the acquisition price, leaving the market without a valuation figure for the transaction. Saldo's existing partnerships in Finland and Germany, which let fintech companies offer lending products through its infrastructure, come with the license and give Payward's banking-as-a-service ambitions a running start.

Payward's banking buildout was already years in the making

Payward has been assembling regulated banking infrastructure for years, and the Saldo acquisition is another stage of that strategy rather than a new ambition. The company said its banking operations have already originated more than $2 billion in loans, and that its infrastructure includes a limited-purpose Federal Reserve master account and an electronic money institution license issued by the Central Bank of Ireland. The Fed account belongs to Kraken Financial, Payward's Wyoming-chartered banking institution. On May 8, the company applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Payward National Trust Company, a proposed trust company that would provide regulated custody and fiduciary services for digital assets. In Europe, Kraken secured MiCA authorization through the Central Bank of Ireland in June 2025 and built a regulated derivatives business through a Cyprus-based investment firm. In August, Payward launched a multi-asset debit card in the United States through Kraken's payment app, Krak, letting customers spend crypto and fiat while earning up to 2 percent cashback in dollars or Bitcoin. Earlier in October, Payward and Singapore Gulf Bank introduced settlement arrangements allowing selected institutional customers to move U.S. dollars around the clock.

Closes in 2027, if regulators agree

Everything now depends on regulatory review. Payward confirmed that reviews and integration work were underway and expects the transaction to close in 2027, though it gave no specific completion date and disclosed no purchase consideration. The companies must satisfy the required approvals and customary conditions before the ownership transfer becomes final. For Payward, the prize is clear: a regulated bank at the center of its European business, able to hold deposits, extend credit and move euros through SEPA while the exchange side handles the crypto. For the European market, it is a first: a crypto-native company stepping into the traditional banking system not as a partner, but as an owner.

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.

Sources

• Payward announcement of the definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Finance Oy and Saldo Bank UAB, dated October 14, 2026, primary source for the transaction structure, the five-market footprint, the planned deposits, lending, card and payment services, SEPA access, the borrowing-against-crypto capability, the more than $2 billion in originated loans, the Fed master account and Irish EMI license, and the expected 2027 closing subject to regulatory approvals
• CoinDesk, October 14, 2026, secondary source for the Financial Times assessment that Payward would be the first crypto firm to buy a European bank, Saldo Bank's 163.9 million euros in total assets at end-2025 per The Banks, Kraken's earlier pursuit of a Lithuanian banking license, and Arjun Sethi's statement on serving European clients as a primary financial institution
• Cointelegraph, October 14, 2026, secondary source for the definitive agreement, the ECB license and Bank of Lithuania supervision, the five-market footprint, the 2027 expected close, and the August U.S. multi-asset debit card launch through Krak
• crypto.news, October 14, 2026, secondary source for the ECB's October 2021 specialized banking license, the per-market lending and credit card details, the May 8 OCC application for Payward National Trust Company, the MiCA authorization and Cyprus derivatives business, and the October settlement partnership with Singapore Gulf Bank