Fintech company Saldo ventures into the banking sector by offering a savings account

Saldo, a fintech firm headquartered in Finland, plans to enter the banking sector by offering its own banking services moving forward.

The company’s first move will be to launch a savings account and offer it to its current and future customers. The product should roll out at some point this month, and it will be a simple, traditional term deposit account. However, Saldo made a claim that the account would feature the highest interest rate available on the market.

Saldo plans to introduce several more banking services

While the new savings account will be a game-changer for Saldo, the company is only getting started. Its CEO, Jarkko Maensivu, commented on the matter, saying that Saldo has great plans for the near future. It is already planning on launching new digital deposit and lending products.

“Until now, Finns have lost their wealth by keeping their money in normal checking accounts. We want to intensify the interest rate competition between banks and make deposit interest rates more fair for the consumers than they are now,” he said.

Furthermore, he stressed that the company will offer its services to both businesses and consumers. The company’s announcement noted that all the funds deposited in Saldo Bank’s term deposit accounts are covered by the standard deposit protection, so users can have peace of mind, knowing that their funds are safe.

Saldo Bank takes a major step toward achieving its goal

Saldo was founded in 2006, with the idea of offering loans to consumers and SMEs. Over the years, however, its goals evolved, and in 2019, the fintech firm decided to become a full-scale digital bank.

Right now, four years later, the company is finally ready to start rolling out banking products after making several major achievements in the past several years. For example, in 2021, Saldo Bank managed to secure an ECB special banking license. Furthermore, just last month, in September 2023, Salso officially received the green light to launch its products from Finland’s financial regulators.

However, becoming a full-scale digital bank is only a part of its ambition, as Saldo also intends to expand internationally in the future. So far, the company managed to expand to Lithuania, where it is currently offering term deposits and consumer loans. The company entered the Lithuanian market back in February 2023, after becoming regulatory compliant and obtaining a specialized bank license from the European Central Bank.

More recently, it also entered Germany’s market with similar products, and next year, it intends to enter the Swedish market.