Sofort
“Can Sofort GmbH survive as Klarna's regulated open-banking infrastructure entity (PISP/AISP) in Europe after the consumer-facing brand has been fully absorbed into Klarna's checkout experience?”
Sofort began as a direct online bank-transfer scheme ('Sofortüberweisung') allowing German consumers to pay merchants via their online banking credentials without a card. Acquired by Klarna in 2014, the brand was progressively subsumed into the Klarna ecosystem. By 2023–2025, Sofort had effectively ceased to exist as an independent consumer-facing product: Adyen-connected merchants migrated to 'Klarna Debit Risk', Stripe dropped it as a standalone method, and Checkout.com closed new integrations. What remains is Sofort GmbH as the regulated EU legal entity (PISP/AISP) providing the open-banking infrastructure layer for Klarna's bank-transfer and account-information services across Europe.