“Can Santander's balance sheet plus Openbank's tech stack build a pan-European Klarna alternative distributed through its existing merchant network?”
Openbank Pay is the merchant-facing brand of Open Bank, S.A. (the digital bank of the Santander Group), operated jointly with Santander Consumer Finance under the umbrella of 'The Digital Consumer Bank'. The product line evolved from a pure digital-banking play into a checkout-embedded BNPL and consumer-lending platform for Santander's ~75k merchant network across 16 European countries, competing with Klarna and Scalapay in the European POS-financing space.
Openbank Pay discloses Open Bank, S.A. (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Openbank Pay does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Open Bank, S.A. (in-house).
Openbank Pay processes payments through Openbank Pay (self-operated).
Openbank Pay's cards are issued through Open Bank, S.A. (in-house) on the Visa network.
Openbank Pay uses SCHUFA, CRIF, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, KSV1870 and Infoscore for KYC and identity verification.
Openbank Pay's lending and capital products are provided by Open Bank, S.A. (in-house) and Santander Consumer Finance (in-house).
Openbank Pay connects to bank accounts through Tink.
Openbank Pay's embedded insurance is provided by CNP Santander Insurance Europe, CNP Santander Insurance Life and CNP Santander Insurance Services Ireland Limited.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 9 layers in Openbank Pay's stack: Payments / PSP (Openbank Pay (self-operated)); Banking / BaaS (Open Bank, S.A. (in-house)); Card issuing (Open Bank, S.A. (in-house)); Card network (Visa); Lending (Open Bank, S.A. (in-house), Santander Consumer Finance (in-house), Openbank Pay BNPL (Pay in 30 days), Openbank Pay Pay in 3 instalments and 3 others); Insurance (CNP Santander Insurance Europe, CNP Santander Insurance Life and CNP Santander Insurance Services Ireland Limited); Open banking (Tink); KYC (SCHUFA, CRIF, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, KSV1870 and 1 other); Sponsor bank (Open Bank, S.A. (in-house)).
Openbank Pay is headquartered in Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Openbank Pay 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.