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Paystack has taken a major step beyond payments by entering Nigeria’s regulated banking space through the acquisition of Ladder Microfinance Bank, marking its transition from a payments-focused fintech to a broader financial services provider.
The move enables Paystack, which is owned by Stripe, to directly offer deposit-taking and lending services—two critical areas where many Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to face structural challenges. Following the acquisition, the institution will operate as Paystack Microfinance Bank (Paystack MFB).
Paystack MFB will initially focus on lending to businesses, with plans to gradually extend select services to consumers. It will also offer banking-as-a-service (BaaS) capabilities, allowing other companies to build financial products such as embedded finance solutions and treasury management tools on its regulated infrastructure.
“After 10 years of building payment infrastructure and going deep, we realised that businesses needed more than just getting paid to grow,” said Amandine Lobelle, Chief Operating Officer at Paystack. “We want to use the experience we’ve built over the last decade to address some of the biggest pain points businesses face.”
Structurally, Paystack MFB will operate independently from Paystack’s core payments business, even though both sit under the same US-based parent company. Each entity will maintain separate licences, governance frameworks, and product roadmaps, while collaborating strictly within regulatory boundaries. This setup allows Paystack to explore deposits and credit offerings without assuming the higher regulatory and capital burdens of a full commercial banking licence.
The acquisition follows Paystack’s recent consumer-facing initiatives, including the launch of the Zap payments app, and positions the company to address Nigeria’s estimated $32 billion SME financing gap. By processing payments for more than 300,000 businesses every month, Paystack already has access to real-time transaction data that can support more accurate risk assessment, compliance analytics, and loan underwriting models.
Rather than relying on traditional financial statements, Paystack MFB plans to use live revenue flows to offer loans, overdrafts, and merchant cash advances—an approach aligned with modern RegTech solutions that emphasise data-driven decision-making and risk mitigation.
“Our goal is to make Paystack MFB the fastest and most dependable way for businesses to move money, access funds, and manage their accounts,” Lobelle explained. “That’s how we become the primary bank account for businesses.”
This strategy sets Paystack apart from many digital-first banks that began by building deposit bases before layering in lending. Instead, Paystack is starting from the infrastructure layer, using payment intelligence to optimise compliance risk assessment, credit decisions, and internal controls. In doing so, it enters competition with established microfinance banks such as LAPO, Accion, and Baobab, as well as fintech players offering embedded finance, including Moniepoint, OPay, PalmPay, and Kuda.
Paystack noted that existing partnerships with commercial banks, such as Titan Trust Bank for payment processing, remain unchanged. The company also clarified that Paystack MFB operates independently of Brass, another business banking platform backed by Paystack-led investors.
“Brass has its own team and investors,” Lobelle said. “Like any other financial services platform in Nigeria, it can access Paystack MFB’s banking-as-a-service offerings, but the two businesses are entirely independent.”
In April 2025, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) fined Paystack ₦250 million for operating Zap as a wallet product without prior approval. Subsequent regulatory clearances for Zap and now Paystack MFB underscore the importance of regulatory compliance, regulatory change management, and alignment with Nigeria’s evolving regulatory framework for fintechs.
With this expansion, Paystack is positioning itself to control a larger portion of the financial value chain—combining payments, deposits, and lending—while operating within clearly defined regulatory requirements. The strategy reflects a broader trend across the RegTech industry, where fintechs are increasingly integrating compliance management systems, regulatory reporting, and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) practices into product design.
“By adding Paystack MFB to our family of brands, we’re combining the speed of a tech-first platform with the stability and oversight of traditional banking,” Lobelle said. “That balance is essential for building financial services that can scale responsibly with Nigeria’s digital economy.”
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