Klarna is proud to announce that it has been granted a full banking licence by Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.

Sebastian Siemiatkowski CEO of Klarna: “This is another exciting milestone on the Klarna journey to become the world’s favourite 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.”

Obtaining a banking license is a natural next step for Klarna, enabling us to broaden our product portfolio for customers and merchants. With the best technological platform, no organisational legacy and a focus on customer experience, innovation and simplicity, Klarna aims to transform parts of 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

Klarna was founded in 2005 in Stockholm, Sweden with the aim of making it easier for people to shop online. In the last 12 years, technology has evolved, excited and transformed the world around us, yet our mission remains as relevant as ever, to make paying and now retail banking as simple, safe and above all, smooth as possible.

The license to operate as a bank came into effect the date of the decision.

About Klarna

Klarna is now one of Europe’s largest banks, providing easy to use payment solutions for 60 million consumers across 70.000 merchants. Klarna is today active in 18 markets with more than 1500 employees. The company was founded in Sweden 2005 with the goal to make online payments safe, simple and smooth. Klarna offers direct payments, pay after delivery options and installment plans in a smooth one-click purchase experience that lets consumers pay when and how they prefer to. When the company acquired SOFORT in 2014 the Klarna Group was formed. Klarna is backed by investors such as Sequoia Capital, Bestseller, Atomico and General Atlantic.