Just six months after the agreement was signed, the partnership was approved by BaFin, Bank of Lithuania and the FCA. Solarisbank and Contis will now be led by Solarisbank’s CEO, Dr. Roland Folz as founder and executive chairman/CEO of Contis Peter Cox becomes senior group advisor and shareholder. Lee Johnstone, CFO of Contis, will lead the company as managing director.

Solarisbank and Contis aim to achieve sustainable revenue growth in the range of 40 to 60% as the former prepares for an IPO in Q3 2022. Ahead of this, the BaaS provider will update the organisational and management structure, implement IFRS accounting standards and new ESG standards and, in addition to this, process optimisation and investment in compliance and regulatory matters.

Johnstone highlights: "We are delighted to announce that Contis and Solarisbank will now operate as a joint entity, bringing an unrivalled Banking-as-a-Service offer to the European market. With our complementary product sets and geographical coverage, we’re proud to become a complete end-to-end one-stop-shop for fintechs, banks and corporates embedding finance in their offer. Together our services cover fiat and crypto assets, lending as well as payments, and card issuing and processing across every EEA geography. Both companies are passionate about innovation, which will continue to be a guiding principle as we plan our expansion beyond Europe."

Further, in Thom Rasser, CFO of Solarisbank's view: "2021 was an exceptional year for Solarisbank and Contis. We have seen accelerated growth in all areas and are proud to have become the largest Banking-as-a-Service platform in Europe; operating more than five million end customer accounts. With local branches in all major European markets, we offer unparalleled market coverage and a unique product offering. This is particularly evident in the satisfaction of end customers with our partners, who achieve top scores on various rating platforms. In order to sustain this high quality while growing at a fast pace, we will continue to invest significantly in our platform."

Folz concludes: "It is our declared goal to become Europe's core bank and the backbone for all customer-centric ecosystems that want to embed financial services seamlessly into their offerings. To provide our partners with a highly scalable and secure platform, we must achieve operational excellence at all levels. Which is why we constantly monitor, adapt and improve our processes and structures. We look forward to entering the next phase of our exciting growth story and are grateful for the trust placed in us by our customers, partners, employees and shareholders."