Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Finance Oy, the Finnish holding company behind Lithuania-licensed Saldo Bank, according to Finance Magnates.

Financial terms were not disclosed, and the transaction is expected to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.

Saldo Bank operates in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany, with passporting rights extending to the Netherlands, offering retail term deposits, consumer loans, SME lending, SEPA payments and embedded fintech lending.

No major cryptocurrency exchange operator has previously owned and operated a fully licensed European Union bank, and Ledger Insights notes this deal would be the first such acquisition if it clears approval.

Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi framed the purchase as the capstone of a license-by-license strategy: '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.'

The move reverses the neobank playbook, where firms like Revolut built payments businesses before adding crypto.

The acquisition completes Payward's EU licensing stack, according to Ledger Insights. The group already holds an electronic money institution license from the Central Bank of Ireland, a MiCA crypto asset service provider authorization through the same regulator, and a MiFID license through Cyprus.

Saldo Bank adds a CRD credit institution license — the only license type permitting deposit taking and lending.

In the US, Kraken Financial operates as a Wyoming special purpose depository institution and received a limited purpose Federal Reserve master account in March, though it cannot lend customers' fiat deposits and carries no FDIC insurance; the EU bank would bring both.

Approval is not the Bank of Lithuania's to give. Under the Single Supervisory Mechanism, acquisitions of qualifying holdings in any euro area credit institution are decided by the European Central Bank, with the national authority conducting the assessment, Ledger Insights reports.

Criteria include the acquirer's reputation, financial soundness, the bank's ability to meet prudential requirements, and money laundering risk — a criterion Ledger Insights notes leaves no room for discretion.

The ECB has already signaled its broader concern, writing in an April opinion that shocks can be transmitted to banks receiving material deposits from crypto firms; this deal asks it to approve the exchange owning the bank.

Payward said the deal will let Payward Banking offer deposits with interest, lending products, card issuance and banking-as-a-service to European clients, per Cointelegraph via TradingView.

The company already launched a multi-asset debit card in the US in August through its payment app Krak, allowing customers to spend crypto and fiat while earning up to 2% cashback in dollars or Bitcoin.

Finance Magnates cautions that operating across multiple regulated verticals widens the attack surface for financial crime and cyberattacks, citing Revolut's recent security vulnerabilities. The outcome will shape whether crypto firms can become primary financial institutions in Europe.

The deal is expected to close in 2027, subject to customary regulatory approvals including ECB sign-off, so the near-term timeline stretches well past this week's announcement.

Saldo Bank's credit card is active in Finland and set to expand to Sweden by 2027, giving Payward an existing product roadmap to build on, according to Finance Magnates.

If approved, Payward would stand as one of the first major crypto exchange operators to directly own a fully licensed EU bank, adding a banking layer to an integrated fiat-and-crypto platform spanning trading, payments and credit.

If blocked, the ECB's money laundering and exposure concerns would set a harder precedent for crypto-banking consolidation.