Acquisition of the Lithuanian specialized bank brings Payward an EU banking license, unlocking yield-bearing deposits, lending products, card issuance, and SEPA payments for clients in Europe
Payward, Inc. ("Payward"), a unified financial infrastructure platform, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Finance Oy, a Finnish holding company whose subsidiary, Saldo Bank UAB ("Saldo Bank"), is a digital-first specialized bank licensed in Lithuania with passporting across five European markets.
The acquisition marks the next major step in the buildout of Payward Banking, the money layer of Payward's financial infrastructure platform. Payward Banking has originated more than $2 billion in loans and holds regulated infrastructure across key global markets, including a Federal Reserve limited-purpose master account and an EMI license granted by the Central Bank of Ireland. An EU banking license extends that stack into Europe's largest regulated market.
"Payward Banking is not a new ambition it is a business we have been building license by license, market by market," said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward. "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. We believe whoever owns that relationship earns the right to serve everything around it. We are starting in the EU, and the ambition is global."
Saldo Bank serves customers in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany, and holds a passport to operate in the Netherlands. Retail term deposits are available in every one of its markets, while lending is more targeted: consumer loans in Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, and secured and unsecured SME loans in Lithuania and Finland. Its credit card is already live in Finland and is expected to launch in Sweden in 2027. Beyond its own products, the bank helps build Europe's financial infrastructure through full SEPA payments access, and it provides embedded lending to other fintech companies in Finland and Germany.
Combined with Payward's existing infrastructure, the acquisition is expected to enable Payward Banking to offer European clients interest on deposits, lending products, and banking-as-a-service capabilities including passporting, card issuance, and SME lending, subject to regulatory approvals.
"A banking license is only as valuable as what you build on top of it," said Jarkko Mäensivu, President of Saldo Bank. "Payward has spent years assembling regulated infrastructure across the US and Europe. Saldo Bank's infrastructure was built to be Europe-wide, enabling innovative banking solutions including embedded services for other fintechs. Combining these capabilities with our five-market footprint means far more customers can access the full range of what both businesses offer banking, payments, and lending in one place."
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in 2027.
About Payward
Payward, Inc. is a unified financial infrastructure platform that powers a family of products advancing an open, global financial system. Built on a single shared architecture, Payward enables customers to hold, trade, earn, pay, and invest across asset classes without friction or fragmentation.
At its core, Payward provides the infrastructure layer behind Kraken and a growing set of purpose-built products, including NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, and CF Benchmarks. Payward separates infrastructure from product expression. Each product surface fits within four pillars Payward Trading, Payward Banking, Payward Asset Management, Payward Services while operating on the same global foundation:
- One global liquidity pool
- One unified risk and margin engine
- One collateral and settlement system
- One compliance and licensing framework
This shared architecture allows Payward to scale efficiently, launch new products at low marginal cost, and serve diverse global markets while maintaining consistent risk management, regulatory integrity, and operational resilience.
For more information about Payward, please visit www.payward.com.
About Saldo Bank
Saldo Bank UAB is a specialized bank licensed by the European Central Bank and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania. It operates in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany. Saldo Bank offers consumers fully automated loan solutions, deposit services, lending for SME customers and infrastructure services for other fintechs. At the end of September 2026, more than 90 people worked at Saldo Bank.
For more information about Saldo Bank, please visit www.saldo.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261014530263/en/
Contacts:
Media Contact
Lauren Post
press@payward.com
