25M unique customers across Europe. 1,800+ merchants served today. 235M+ transactions processed yearly. Bertelsmann’s fintech arm has secured an EU banking licence in the Grand Duchy, marking a step-change in its bid to become the default financial infrastructure for European merchants.
Riverty, the fintech subsidiary of German media and services giant Bertelsmann, announced on 27 May that it has obtained a credit-institution licence under the EU Capital Requirements Regulation, the CRR banking licence, in Luxembourg. The approval, granted after a ten-month application process, allows the company to upgrade its existing payment institution into a fully fledged bank, with operations set to begin in July 2026.
The move positions Riverty at the intersection of two accelerating trends: the blurring of commerce and financial services, and the growing demand from international merchants for a single, cross-border financial partner. Until now, Riverty’s EU payment institution licence let it offer buy-now-pay-later and deferred payment solutions. A banking licence expands that palette considerably, from short-term credit into broader consumer financing products, all passportable across the European Economic Area.
“Merchants increasingly need seamless payment, financing and banking services embedded into the customer journey. With the banking licence, Riverty is building the European gateway for merchants.” — Andreas Barth, CEO, Riverty
Luxembourg was a deliberate choice. Riverty cited the Grand Duchy’s depth as a financial hub, its internationally mobile talent pool, and Bertelsmann’s longstanding local presence, anchored notably by RTL, as factors that made it the natural home for a pan-European banking platform. The country’s regulatory environment and its concentration of payments and commerce players also weighed in its favour over rival jurisdictions such as Dublin or Amsterdam.
Carsten Coesfeld, the Bertelsmann board member responsible for Riverty, framed the licence as the gateway to a new growth chapter: “With regulatory approval in Luxembourg, Riverty is ideally positioned to expand its consumer finance business with new, innovative products and drive the verticalization of payments.” The speed of approval — under a year — reflects, the company says, more than a decade of regulated operations as a payment institution.
“We operate at the core of the transaction, enabling merchants to improve conversion and cash flow while maintaining control of the customer relationship.” — Oliver Kuhaupt, Chief Risk Officer & designated bank CEO, Riverty.
On day one in July, the new bank will absorb Riverty’s existing payment and credit book, 1,800-plus merchants, roughly 25 million consumers, and more than 235 million annual transactions. Beyond that, the company has signalled a clear ambition: to become the leading embedded payment, credit and liquidity platform for enterprise merchants in Europe, deepening integrations and launching more flexible consumer financing products across its ten-market footprint.
For Luxembourg, the arrival of a Bertelsmann-backed banking entity adds another layer to the Grand Duchy’s already dense financial-services ecosystem, and a signal that embedded finance is maturing from a buzzword into regulated infrastructure.
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