Payward, which owns the crypto exchange Kraken, is buying Saldo Bank, a Lithuania-based, EU-regulated bank, according to Financial Times reporting on October 14, 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Payward, the owner of Kraken, would buy Saldo Bank to expand into traditional banking services such as lending and issuing cards, the FT said.
- The Bank of Lithuania register lists Saldo Bank UAB with a Specialised bank licence valid from 2021-10-26, more than five years before the expected 2027 close.
- That licence already covers Receipt of deposits and other repayable funds from non-professional participants of the market, a power the FT says US trust charters lack.
- Payward is the first digital asset company to buy a bank in Europe, the FT said, and the deal price was not disclosed.
- Exchange Coinbase and payments group Ripple are among the crypto companies that have received conditional approval for national trust bank charters from the OCC, a separate US route.
What Happened?
Payward would gain a licensed European lender through a purchase, not the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) process where Coinbase and Ripple won conditional approvals. The company is one of several crypto groups that have applied for a banking charter in the US. The Saldo deal opens a parallel route for Kraken.
Arjun Sethi, co-chief executive of Payward, told the FT that customers will be able to borrow and lend against their assets without selling. He framed the goal as putting Cash, crypto, tokenised stocks, credit, all under one system.
Payward was founded in 2011. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in 2027. Until then, the more telling detail is the kind of licence Payward is buying.
JUST IN: Kraken to buy Saldo Bank
— Kalshi Crypto (@Kalshi_Crypto) October 14, 2026
The Bank of Lithuania register shows what Payward would inherit
The Bank of Lithuania register is more specific than the FT’s summary, and its permissions start in 2021. It classes Saldo Bank UAB in the category Specialised bank in Lithuania, with authorization code LB002115. Alongside deposit-taking, the licence lists Issuing of payment instruments and/or acquiring of payment; and Issuing of electronic money. It also shows Money remittance and a Saldo Bank UAB branch in Finland.
That permission set maps onto the plan Sethi describes, since deposit-taking and payment-instrument issuing are already licensed. The register shows no balance-sheet or loan-book data, so the lender’s size is unverified.
A deposit-taking licence against a deposit-less charter
The US route works differently. The conditional trust charter approvals for Coinbase and Ripple come from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). They carry the power to hold customers’ assets and provide transaction services but crucially not take deposits, in the FT’s words.
The Saldo licence is a deposit-taking bank licence on a public regulator’s register, which the trust charters, as the FT describes them, are not. This month, the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC over the charters, and the OCC declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Sethi and the banks disagree on parity
In the US, the banks have said the move would introduce risks into the financial system, and that under national trust charters, crypto groups face lighter regulations than traditional banks. Sethi rejects the framing. It’s not about is it good or bad for a bank or not, we’re just going to be new versions of banks, he said, with firms like Payward operating in the same jurisdictions and under the same rules.
Our request for a comment from Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi on this matter is yet answered.
The Bottom Line
Payward is buying an existing EU bank rather than relying only on its US charter application. That makes the Saldo deal a shortcut into lending and deposits. Sethi’s one-system pitch for cash, crypto and credit rests on lending against customer assets, a balance sheet business rather than an exchange business.
The community bankers’ lawsuit shows how contested crypto’s move into banking has become in the US, where Payward’s own charter application sits. Until either company issues a formal announcement, the October 14, 2026 FT account is so far the sole public account of the terms, and the register confirms only the licence, not the lender’s size.
