Sweden-based Klarna, a fintech startup that provides e-commerce payment solutions to merchants and shoppers, has announced its expansion of Open Banking solution across eight more European countries. These include Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg, Ireland, Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Koen Köppen, Klarnas CTO says, “Since we launched our Open Banking Offering in March 2019 our growth trajectory has been tremendous. That’s why we’re excited to launch in 8 more markets today and expand our product offering even further, as we continue to lead Europe’s Open Banking industry covering more than 6,000 banks across 24 countries. The ability to empower consumers through financial data should not be at the discretion of a single provider but open to many providers so that more solutions can be developed that put the customer at the centre of their personal finances.”
Largest open banking network in Europe
The development comes right after Klarna raised $1B (approx €830M) in an equity funding round earlier this month. The raised capital is being used to accelerate international expansion and further capture the global retail growth of the company.
The fintech company claims to provide the largest open banking network in Europe, supporting a total of 24 countries in the continent, with up to 99 per cent and a minimum of 90 per cent bank coverage across markets.
Klarna’s Open Banking solution which currently processes more than 150 million transactions per year, offers third-party providers simplified access to consumer bank account data via “Account information” (AIS) and “Payment initiation” (PIS) services in line with Payment Services Directives (PSD2).
The secure solution allows consumers, wishing to boost the potential of their financial data, to better understand and engage with their finances in a more meaningful way.
Klarna has also launched “Account Insights”
As part of the latest expansion, Klarna also introduces “Account Insights” – a new solution that turns simple bank statements into unique insights through categorisation and data enrichment.
These insights can enable a variety of use cases including personalised budget plans, insurance checks, loan applications, credit & risk assessments, personal finance management applications, and more, all through simple API integration.
Klarna claims its XS2A API is the most established and proven solution that has been developed at scale across markets for more than 15 years. Across markets, Klarna has a better PIS conversion rate from the login to the successful completion of the flow.
The Klarna Open Banking platform also provides developer-friendly tools and technical solutions to help solve both the compliance and UX aspects of managing credentials and to overall help drive an accelerated time to market for products while minimising costs and technological investments required.
Everything about Klarna
Stockholm-based Klarna was founded in 2005 by Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth, and Victor Jacobsson. It is an e-commerce payment solutions platform for merchants and shoppers. Klarna is a regulated bank known for its “buy now, pay later” model that offers shoppers interest-free financing on retail purchases over a period of instalments.
Besides, consumers can browse and shop at any brand online with Klarna payment options, track spending and available balances, add favorite items to wishlists, access tailored discounts, receive price-drop notifications, track deliveries intelligently and join Klarna’s new loyalty program, Vibe.
In addition, the company also offers direct payments, pay after delivery options, and instalment plans.
The fintech company has over 200,000 retail partners including giants such as H&M, IKEA, Expedia Group, Samsung, ASOS, Peloton, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nike, and AliExpress.
With over 3,500 employees in 17 countries, Klarna’s investors include Sequoia Capital since 2010 and more recently, Dragoneer, Bestseller Group, Permira, Visa, Atomico, Ant Group and Silver Lake, HMI Capital, and TCV, amongst others.
The company has also launched new products including savings accounts in Sweden, current accounts in Germany, and Klarna’s Vibe loyalty program in the US and Australia which enhanced consumer acquisition and retention, and drove adoption of the Klarna app to a record 18 million monthly global users.