Founded in Stockholm in 2005, Klarna started with the aim of making shopping online easier by providing payment solutions to 60 million customers and 70,000 merchants.

Klarna hopes the licence will allow it to broaden its product portfolio for customers and merchants as it looks to transform parts of retail banking.

“This is another exciting milestone on the Klarna journey to become the world's favourite way to buy, but also for the European banking sector,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna (pictured above).

Sebastian felt that as the entire banking value chain was being challenged, the payments sector had seen the most profound transformation.

“Klarna has played a role in disrupting payments services for the better and now as a consumer-oriented, product-driven and technology-intensive bank, we have the tools to drive change in retail banking.

“We will do this by providing solutions that ensure a smooth customer experience, help people streamline their financial lives and continue to support businesses by solving the complexity in handling payments.

“The opportunities are tremendous, it is a thrilling prospect.”

Klarna is active in 18 markets, has over 1,500 employees, offers direct payments, pay after delivery options and instalment plans.