Opera pushes hard into digital financial services with Bank acquisition

Opera, one of the world’s leading browser providers with more than 360 million users, and new offerings across content, classifieds and digital financial services, has announced its intention to purchase Fjord Bank subject to regulatory approval.

Opera pushes hard into digital financial services with Bank acquisition

The acquisition will enable Opera to further accelerate its FinTech operations in Europe by launching new, disruptive digital financial services aimed at improving consumers’ personal finances.

With a growing user base of more than 50 million monthly active browser users in Europe, Opera is already among the top consumer technology companies in the continent.

In January 2020 Opera ventured into the digital financial services space in Europe with the acquisition of the Estonian FinTech company PocoSys, which enabled Opera to build on Pocosys’ unique digital wallet and payment technology. Opera is currently testing a new version of the Pocopay card and app ahead of the launch in its first European market.

With the acquisition of AB Fjord Bank, Opera will become the owner of a specialised bank, which is launching its first deposit and loan service in Lithuania during the summer of 2020.

“Opera has been making innovative browsers and apps for 25 years. Our browsers are the personal choice of millions of people who prefer them over those that come preinstalled on their devices,” says Krystian Kolondra, EVP Opera. “Looking at the FinTech space in Europe, we believe it needs more and bigger challengers who should provide people with smarter and empowering solutions for their personal finances.”

Opera and AB Fjord Bank entered into an investment and share purchase agreement on May 29th 2020. Opera acquired a 9.9% interest in AB Fjord Bank via a share subscription which was completed on 3 July 2020. Completion of the acquisition of the remaining 90.1% of Fjord Bank is pending regulatory approval.

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