“Can a fully licensed Belgian digital bank become the BaaS chassis for UniCredit's pan-European embedded finance push?”
Aion Bank originated from Banca Monte Paschi Belgio and relaunched in 2020 as a digital, subscription-only bank in Belgium powered by the Vodeno cloud banking platform. It pivoted toward Banking-as-a-Service, leveraging its Belgian credit institution license to offer accounts, cards, payments, IBANs and lending to retailers, marketplaces, neobanks and fintechs across the EU. In 2024 it was acquired by UniCredit (together with Vodeno) to become the BaaS rail for UniCredit's European embedded finance ambitions.
Aion Bank discloses Aion Bank SA/NV (in-house, Belgian credit institution) as its banking provider, with Aion Bank SA/NV (self) as its sponsor bank, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Aion Bank does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Aion Bank SA/NV (self).
Aion Bank processes payments through Form3 (payments processing, clearing & settlement) and Aion Bank (in-house, ECB/NBB-licensed).
Aion Bank's cards run on Mastercard.
Aion Bank's lending and capital products are provided by Aion Bank (in-house) via Vodeno platform.
Aion Bank runs its ledger on Vodeno Cloud Platform.
Aion Bank connects to bank accounts through Aion Bank PSD2 APIs (AIS, PIS, CoF — self-operated as ASPSP).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 7 layers in Aion Bank's stack: Payments / PSP (Form3 (payments processing, clearing & settlement) and Aion Bank (in-house, ECB/NBB-licensed)); Banking / BaaS (Aion Bank SA/NV (in-house, Belgian credit institution)); Card network (Mastercard); Ledger (Vodeno Cloud Platform); Lending (Aion Bank (in-house) via Vodeno platform, Embedded BNPL (B2C), B2B Buy Now Pay Later and BaaS lending (retail & SME)); Open banking (Aion Bank PSD2 APIs (AIS, PIS, CoF — self-operated as ASPSP)); Sponsor bank (Aion Bank SA/NV (self)).
Aion Bank is founded in 2020 and headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Aion Bank and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.