Klarna Acquires Close Brothers' Consumer Financing Arm

Klarna, the Swedish buy-now-pay-later and embedded payments provider, announced the acquisition of the consumer financing arm of Close Brothers, a UK merchant banking group. The deal enables Klarna to absorb an established consumer finance portfolio and expand its presence in the UK embedded lending market. Close Brothers' consumer financing unit provided point-of-sale credit products through retail partnerships, a capability closely aligned with Klarna's core embedded checkout and BNPL offerings.

Financial terms of the transaction were not widely disclosed. The acquisition reflects Klarna's aggressive expansion strategy beyond its Nordic home market into the UK, one of Europe's largest consumer credit markets. For Close Brothers, the divestiture allows the bank to focus on its core merchant banking, commercial lending, and securities operations.

The deal signals growing fintech appetite for acquiring traditional bank consumer finance books to accelerate embedded finance distribution.