Kraken's parent wants your salary, but your €100,000 guarantee may not follow
Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, agreed on 14 October to buy Saldo Finance Oy, the Finnish owner of Lithuania's Saldo Bank, in a deal that would put deposit accounts, lending and payments alongside Bitcoin trading. The acquisition, expected to close in 2027 if regulators approve, would extend a banking push that already includes a payments entity in Ireland and a link to Singapore Gulf Bank's institutional dollar network. Nasdaq has also agreed to invest $100 million in the group.
For a customer, the appeal is obvious: one app for salary, savings and crypto. The danger is equally clear. An eligible deposit at Saldo Bank would fall under Lithuania's statutory deposit-guarantee scheme, which generally protects up to €100,000 per depositor at that bank. That ceiling applies to the customer's combined eligible deposits with the institution, not separately to each product or screen. Electronic-money balances held with Payward Ireland Limited are safeguarded rather than treated as bank deposits, and customers do not receive the same bank guarantee if a protected e-money balance is returned through an insolvency process. Bitcoin held through a custody service is a third legal relationship again: deposit insurance would not reimburse a loss caused by a fall in its price.
Saldo Bank also brings a loan book that demands scrutiny. Its audited 2025 accounts show gross loans grew 18.5% to €123.8 million, while loans at least 90 days overdue rose almost 118%, from €1.615 million to €3.514 million. Their share of gross loans climbed from about 1.55% to 2.84%. Impairment expense of €9.36 million absorbed about 90% of the bank's €10.4 million operating profit before loan impairments in 2025, leaving €962,000 in net profit after tax. In the first half of 2026, operating profit before impairment of €5.7 million was outweighed by €6.25 million in credit-loss expense, producing a €545,000 net loss. The impairment allowance stood at €11.45 million, or about 8.84% of gross loans, up from 8.31% at the end of 2025.
The balance sheet is expanding. Saldo's June 2026 report lists €196.9 million in assets, €169.4 million in retail deposits and a €129.5 million gross credit portfolio. Retail deposits rose by €32.5 million between December and June, while gross credit exposure increased by about €5.8 million, or 4.7%. The bank reported a 19% capital adequacy ratio and a liquidity coverage ratio of 1,957.2%, measures that show loss-absorbing capital and stress-outflow resources rather than a guarantee for customers of other Payward companies.
Payward has not published the terms of an integrated salary product, so the path a paycheck would take remains unspecified. A customer would need to know which institution receives the money, whether it becomes a deposit or electronic money, how much of the €100,000 limit is already used at that bank, and the conditions for getting the money back at every transfer. Common ownership would not make Saldo Bank a guarantor of balances owed by another Payward company, nor would it let an affiliate borrow customer deposits outside the rules on bank exposures and related-party transactions. Kraken's European Unified Wallet already carries a separate account-level distinction: opting into cross margin can expose eligible spot assets to derivatives losses, a trading risk that should not be confused with deposit protection.
