{"id":4195,"date":"2026-07-06T15:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/klarna-seeks-u-s-bank-charter-in-push-beyond-buy-now-pay-later\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T15:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:54:14","slug":"klarna-seeks-u-s-bank-charter-in-push-beyond-buy-now-pay-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/klarna-seeks-u-s-bank-charter-in-push-beyond-buy-now-pay-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Klarna seeks U.S. bank charter in push beyond buy now, pay later"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"RegularArticle-ArticleBody-5\" data-module=\"ArticleBody\" data-test=\"articleBody-2\" data-analytics=\"RegularArticle-articleBody-5-2\"><span class=\"HighlightShare-hidden\" style=\"top:0;left:0\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"InlineImage-imageEmbed\" id=\"ArticleBody-InlineImage-108196993\" data-test=\"InlineImage\">\n<div class=\"InlineImage-wrapper\">\n<div>\n<p>Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder of Swedish fintech Klarna, gives an interview with CNBC during the company\u2019s initial public offering at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Sept. 10, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p><span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-1\">Klarna<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"\/><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span>, the Swedish fintech firm best known for its buy now, pay later offerings, said Monday it applied to federal and state regulators to establish a U.S. bank subsidiary.<\/p>\n<p>The firm said that, if approved, Klarna Bank USA would be a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-backed institution chartered in Utah. The proposed bank would be led by Gary Harding, former CEO of Milestone Bank and Prime Alliance Bank, according to Klarna.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen firsthand the appetite for a fairer, more transparent approach in the U.S., and our own banking license is the natural next step,&#8221; said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna.<\/p>\n<p>The move will give &#8220;customers tools to borrow responsibly and build financial confidence, while bringing greater competition, innovation, and choice&#8221; to the market, he said. <\/p>\n<p>Klarna&#8217;s application is the latest sign that fintech firms, which mostly partner with U.S. banks to offer services, now see owning their own charters as a key advantage. In April, fintech provider Mercury said it won conditional approval to establish its own bank, joining a wave of fintech and crypto firms seeking entry to the traditional banking system.<\/p>\n<p>Klarna said that its charter, if approved, would let it bring its banking operations in-house and strengthen reliability across payments, credit and merchant services.<\/p>\n<p>The application marks Klarna&#8217;s latest step toward becoming a broader consumer bank rather than just a buy now, pay later provider. Last month, Klarna introduced high-yield savings accounts to U.S. customers, though its partner WebBank holds those accounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>By owning a bank, fintech firms can fund loans with their own customer deposits instead of more expensive wholesale financing, directly offer checking accounts and credit cards and rely less on third-party banking partners.<\/p>\n<p>Klarna, which went public last September, is trading for about half of its initial public offering price of $40.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ArticleBody-googlePreferredSourceContainer\" data-module=\"GooglePreferredSource\" data-id=\"RegularArticle-GooglePreferredSource-5\">Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder of Swedish fintech Klarna, gives an interview with CNBC during the company\u2019s initial public offering at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Sept. 10, 2025. Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters Klarna, the Swedish fintech firm best known for its buy now, pay later offerings, said Monday it applied to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[491,660,3679,805,186,1840,2508,272],"class_list":["post-4195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loan","tag-bank","tag-buy","tag-charter","tag-klarna","tag-pay","tag-push","tag-seeks","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}