After 20 months of waiting, Klarna, one of the largest fintech companies in Europe, has received a full banking license from Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. This success will allow them to expand their services and become an alternative for traditional banks.
“This is another exciting milestone on the Klarna journey to become the world’s favorite way to buy but also for the European banking sector. We are now one of Europe’s largest banks with 60 million customers, 70,000 merchants and working seamlessly across borders,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the CEO of Klarna, in the official statement issued on 19th June.
Klarna, estimated to be worth over $2 billion and having a turnover of $13 billion annually, is the largest fintech company to have received a banking license in Europe so far. It allows them to introduce new features such as payment cards or salary accounts. They are also working on a personal finance app.
At the moment, Klarna’s main area of operation is providing secure payments on e-commerce websites and offering customers multiple options for finalizing their purchases. Since launching in 2005, they have been working on making online transactions as safe, simple, and smooth as possible. Unlike traditional banks, they are agile and innovative and focus strongly on customer experience. This, combined with the best technological platform and newly acquired banking license, puts them in a strong position to transform retail banking.
“As the entire banking value chain is being challenged, the payments sector has seen the most profound transformation. Klarna has played a role in disrupting payments services for the better and now as a consumer-oriented, product driven and technology intensive bank, we have the tools to drive change in retail banking. We will do this by providing solutions that ensure a smooth customer experience, help people streamline their financial lives and continue to support businesses by solving the complexity in handling payments. The opportunities are tremendous, it is a thrilling prospect,” commented Sebastian Siemiatkowski.
As expected, Klarna is changing their name to Klarna Bank. Still, they will keep operating in the market under the name of Klarna.
