Kraken parent Payward buys its way to an EU banking license with Saldo Bank deal

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Saldo Bank, a licensed Lithuanian bank, in a deal that would make it the first crypto company to buy a European bank.

The purchase price was not disclosed. Payward announced the agreement in a press release on October 14 and confirmed it in a post on X. The deal is expected to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.

The reason Payward is buying rather than applying lies in the structure of EU financial licensing. Saldo Bank holds a CRD credit institution license, the only EU license type that permits taking deposits and lending. Payward already holds an electronic money institution license from the Central Bank of Ireland, a MiCA authorization through the same regulator, and a MiFID license via Cyprus, but none of those allows the company to hold customer deposits as a bank or write loans against them. Kraken had been seeking a Lithuanian banking license since July, so the acquisition appears to accomplish by purchase what the application route had not yet delivered.

If completed, the deal would put Saldo Bank’s license, and its reach across five markets, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands through passporting, under crypto ownership for the first time. Payward said the combination would let it offer EU customers deposit accounts that pay interest, consumer lending, card products and euro payment processing. Its banking arm has passed $2 billion in loan originations.

Approval is not automatic. Acquisitions of qualifying holdings in euro-area credit institutions are decided by the European Central Bank under the Single Supervisory Mechanism, with the Bank of Lithuania assessing the application first. The stated criteria include the acquirer’s reputation and financial soundness, the target bank’s continued prudential standing, and money laundering risk.

Saldo Bank is small by European standards: The Banks put its total assets at 163.9 million euros, roughly $180 million, at the close of 2025, a 22.7% rise over the year. The license, not the balance sheet, is the asset being bought.