Klarna joins forces with Raisin to launch savings accounts in Germany

Buy-now-pay-later fintech Klarna has launched savings accounts in an unusual move, collaborating with digital savings marketplace Raisin to make it happen.

The products, available completely online through Raisin WeltSparen, will operate from overnight to terms of up to 48 months and are currently only available to Raisin’s German customers.

One of Klarna’s initial offerings includes an overnight money account with an interest rate of 0.35 per cent.

Raisin’s German customers were able to access Klarna’s deposit products as of yesterday, with Klarna’s 1-year rate seven times higher than the average savings account in Germany. 

Robert Bueninck, Managing Director of Klarna in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, said: “We’re on an exciting journey from being purely a payment provider to a comprehensive shopping ecosystem.”

“At the same time, we are consistently expanding our banking offerings and are very happy to have Raisin at our side as a partner who – like us – acts in the interests of the end customer. Through our cooperation, we’re enabling our customers to easily build up long-term assets.”

Dr Tamaz Georgadze, co-founder and CEO of Raisin, added: “Klarna's overnight and term deposit offers are among the best on the market and can be accessed digitally at WeltSparen through an entirely paperless process – a real benefit for our customers.”

Klarna’s shift to the savings space is somewhat unexpected.

Of late the Swedish fintech has been pushing for global expansion and earlier this week it launched its own loyalty scheme, Vibe, in the US with plans to bring it to Europe later this summer.

But, as the buy-now-pay-later sector becomes increasingly crowded, Klarna has decided to expand elsewhere, rather than push further into an already very concentrated market.

For instance, Curve the all-your-cards-in-one fintech recently began beta testing Curve Credit which would let users spread the split the cost of purchases across different payment cards linked to a Curve account, similar to Klarna's offering. 

Raisin has also set its sights on expansion into new areas and recently made several banking partnerships and strategic acquisitions to launch in the US and just earlier this week, the German fintech announced a partnership with Hypovereinsbank, one of the biggest banks in Germany.

Raisin now services more than 230,000 customers across Europe and deposits on its platform reached over €20bn in February 2020.