Klarna payments in Germany and Europe
Klarna is the pay later button at many online checkouts in Germany. Behind it is a Swedish bank that decides on each purchase whether to extend credit and then pays the merchant. Klarna has also announced its first stablecoin, KlarnaUSD.
Klarna at the checkout
Klarna calls itself "the everyday money app that helps 120m people manage spending, payments, and rewards" and counts more than 1.2 million merchants (Klarna). The company started in Stockholm in 2005 and lists its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (Wikipedia). Shoppers can pay now, later or over time, and Klarna also offers a card and a balance account.
Klarna's bank license and its German roots
Klarna secured a full banking license in 2017, granted by Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Wikipedia). The license covers Germany through EU passporting. Klarna's German business goes back to 2014, when it acquired SOFORT, in Klarna's words creating "Europe's fastest-growing online payments group" (Klarna). Sofort let a shopper pay by logging into online banking at the checkout, the model PSD2 later regulated as payment initiation. It was discontinued as a standalone payment method in March 2025, as payment initiation services describes.
Pay later and the consumer credit rules
Pay later and installments are credit, even when they cost the shopper nothing, and Klarna's bank license is what lets it grant that credit across the EU. The revised EU Consumer Credit Directive, which applies from November 20, 2026, brings more of these products under consumer credit rules. Buy now, pay later in Germany covers the rules, the invoice payment Germans are used to and the providers at the checkout.
KlarnaUSD: Klarna's stablecoin
Klarna announced KlarnaUSD, a US dollar stablecoin, as its first stablecoin. It is built on Open Issuance by Bridge, a Stripe company, and runs on Tempo, a blockchain for payments started by Stripe and Paradigm; after a testnet phase Klarna planned the launch on Tempo's mainnet for 2026 (Klarna). Klarna presents stablecoins as a way to cut the cost of cross-border payments for shoppers and merchants. Stablecoin payments covers how such a payment works and how MiCA treats a dollar token in the EU.
Upcoming payments events in Europe
Payments & Digital Money
Risk & Compliance
Is Klarna a bank?
Yes. Klarna Bank AB has held a full banking license from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority since 2017, and the license covers Germany through EU passporting.
What happened to Sofort?
Klarna bought SOFORT in 2014. Sofort started a bank transfer for the shopper at the checkout and was discontinued as a standalone payment method in March 2025.
What is KlarnaUSD?
KlarnaUSD is Klarna's US dollar stablecoin, built on Bridge's Open Issuance and running on the Tempo blockchain. Klarna described itself as the first bank to launch a stablecoin on Tempo.
Checkout, credit and stablecoins
Klarna and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers buy now, pay later, payment initiation and stablecoin payments in its Payments & Digital Money track. Payment providers, banks and merchants meet at Finance Loop events in Frankfurt and other German cities.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.