.png){kind=small}
Stripe-owned Paystack has acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank (MFB) in Nigeria. This acquisition transforms Ladder MFB into Paystack Microfinance Bank (Paystack MFB), providing Paystack with a deposit-taking licence.
This transaction marks a strategic expansion beyond its traditional payments business into regulated banking services, a major step in its transformation into a full-service financial services provider because until now, Paystack only provided payments infrastructure for processing payments for both online and offline merchants.
Meanwhile, without direct banking licenses, the company cannot hold customer funds or offer deposit products on its own and had to partner with licensed banks. But with Ladder MFB under its umbrella, everything now seems possible. Paystack can now hold deposits from businesses and users, issue working capital loans and overdrafts, provide treasury and embedded banking services, offer Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) for fintechs building financial products, and better control the flow of funds and risk models.
According to Paystack’s Chief Operating Officer Amadine Lobelle, businesses need more than payment acceptance, they need capital, liquidity, and suited financial tools. Therefore, owning a microfinance bank licence lets Paystack serve these broader financial needs. It also unlocks a higher-margin part of the financial stack vs. pure payments.
Paystack MFB will operate independently from the legacy payment services and under Stripe’s broader ownership structure. Although, they’ll collaborate but maintain separate governance and licences.
Paystack New MFB License Is An Enabler
The company now plans to venture into lending business with the rollout of traditional microfinance lending products, including working capital loans, merchant cash advances tied to payment data, overdraft facilities, and term-loans suited to small and medium businesses (SMBs) cash-flows.
Furthermore, the MFB License also positioned Paystack to offer Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) by embedding banking services into other fintech products or platforms, giving the company another revenue streams and sales channels for enterprise clients. The license also gives the company an opportunity to offer integrated financial services (similar to what digital banks and embedded platforms do) but starting with its core merchant base.
It's common these days when a fintech companies want to scale and venture into more deeper banking core, they'll acquire or form a merger with another financial institution that hold a higher tier license. Most fintech s find this method as an easy way to enter deposit and credit products without the full cost and scrutiny of a commercial banking licence. They believe that MFB License is less strictly regulated than commercial banks on some ratios (like loan-to-deposit limits).
How This Fits Into Paystack’s Trajectory
Paystack has been owned by Stripe since 2020, when Stripe acquired it for over $200 million, one of the largest exits for an African tech startup. That acquisition was built on Paystack’s core payment infrastructure and its role in enabling online commerce across Africa. Over the years since then, Paystack has been expanding its product scope.
The company has secured a Switching ans Processing licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria to route transactions directly, without intermediaries. It has also built a consumer payments app (Zap) that was launched in 2025. CBN fined the company for how its app Zap operated, and for not giving it a proper licences for deposit-taking and credit services.
Despite that Zap drew regulatory scrutiny and a fine for operating beyond licence scope, and face trademark lawsuit from Zap Africa, the product is still active and running. This acquisition has resolved part of that regulatory constraint by giving Paystack an official banking licence via its microfinance arm.
Now this move into full banking services with deposits and lending will let the company will allow the company to test, scale, and iterate financial products faster, and at the same time, complying with regulators. The company will compete in Nigeria’s vibrant fintech ecosystem with other digital banks and fintech lenders such as Kuda Bank, Moniepoint MFB, OPay Digital Service, Carbon MFB, Fairmoney MFB, and some traditional MFB players like LAPO and Accion.
