Kraken Owner Payward Acquires Saldo Bank for EU Expansion

Kraken Owner Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has announced its acquisition of Saldo Bank, a licensed lender based in Lithuania. This strategic move aims to expand Payward's offerings into lending and card issuance services within the European Union.

Saldo Bank, which obtained its EU banking license in 2021, currently provides consumer and business loans along with term deposits. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. This transaction positions Kraken Owner Payward as the first digital asset company to acquire a bank in Europe.

According to Payward's co-CEO, Arjun Sethi, the integration of Saldo Bank will enable customers to access a unified system for cash, crypto, and tokenized stocks. This system is designed to facilitate borrowing and lending against assets without requiring their sale, addressing a key demand from their customer base.

The acquisition is pending regulatory approvals and is projected to finalize in 2027. This development follows Kraken Owner Payward's previous acquisitions, including derivatives exchange Bitnomial for $550 million in April and Asian stablecoin payments firm Reap Technologies for $600 million in May. Payward had confidentially filed for an initial public offering last November, with a revised target listing date no earlier than the second quarter of 2027.

In the U.S., the company, established in 2011, applied in May for a national trust company charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). This application comes amidst a legal challenge from the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) against the OCC, asserting that the regulator has overstepped its authority by granting such charters to crypto firms.

The ICBA maintains that non-fiduciary firms seeking federal bank charter benefits should adhere to the same standards as traditional community banks. The OCC has not commented on the lawsuit.