Klarna, a leading global payment and shopping service, is launching consumer bank accounts in Germany.
The company said that the aim is to provide users with further control of their finances.
The Klarna bank account will come with a Visa debit card which can also be connected to both Google Pay and Apple Pay.
Initially, the offering will exclusively be made available to a limited number of Klarna consumers to intensively collect and integrate feedback. They will then roll out to all Klarna users in Germany in the coming months.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna said: “Our focus is to provide a superior shopping experience to our consumers at the intersection of retail and banking. And we know that there’s still massive room for improvement to the way many people bank and save their money today. Users are demanding more seamless, intuitive and transparent services to meet their daily needs, but many banks still do not cater for this. We are very excited to introduce Klarna Banking today, bundling shopping and banking in one app and allowing our consumers to bank in the same seamless way as they shop with Klarna.”
Klarna believes that companies in the German financial sector, especially traditional banks, have so far had to struggle with the changes brought about by digitization. It highlights current figures from the Deutsche Bundesbank which show that the number of bank branches has fallen back to the level of the 1950s.
What’s more, it quotes a study by Bitkom from 2019 shows that seven out of ten German citizens carry out their banking on the internet and that digital offers from their bank are more important than a well-known brand.
