News: Klarna applies for a US banking licence, LemFi buys Wealth8, and Santander open-sources AI

**Ross Gallagher** (0:04)
This is Fintech Insider News. This week, Klarna applies for US banking license, Financial Platform for Immigrants LemFi buys Wealth 8, and Santander publishes AI projects on GitHub. We'll be tagging all of this and more on today's News Show, so please don't go anywhere.
And we're live from the living room as Doug eyes up the match day spread.

**Dave Morris** (0:28)
He's reaching for the Buffalo wing.

**Jason Mikula** (0:30)
Perfect! Hang on, what's this? Oh, he's gone for a can of Pepsi too!

**Bernadette Smith** (0:35)
Incredible!

**Jason Mikula** (0:37)
What a finish!

**Dave Morris** (0:38)
Sensational combination! Look at the delight on his face. There's no doubt about it. It just tastes better. Match days deserve Pepsi. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a pack of Pepsi Zero Sugar for today's match. It's poetry in motion.

**Ross Gallagher** (1:04)
Hello and welcome to episode 1080 of Fintech Insider News, brought to you by 11FS, the now six-time Consultancy of the Year that works with financial providers, big and small, to build the next generation of financial services. I'm Ross Gallagher, the head of consulting here at 11FS. Now, to help me unpack the biggest and most interesting stories from Fintech and financial services from the past week, I'm joined by a quite brilliant panel of guests. First up, we have a welcome back to the show for Dave Morris, the CEO of Foundry OS.
Dave, as ever, it's always great to see you. Maybe you can just remind the listeners a little bit about yourself, your role and what's going on at Foundry OS.

**Dave Morris** (1:45)
Yeah, great to be on again, Ross. Yeah, Foundry OS is a SaaS banking and wealth platform that we've been building from the 11FS family over a few years, which we finally launched at the beginning of this year. We're now live on our first two customers.
A lot of plans for what we're doing the next half of the year. A lot of interesting AI things, so it'll be good when we get to the last story around the Santander stuff, we can talk about some of that stuff. Really good to be on again.

**Ross Gallagher** (2:13)
Yeah, great to have you, Dave. Thanks for coming on and sharing your insights and perspectives.
We now have a Fintech Insider debut for the one and only Kaley Addo, the Head of UK Operations of Upvest. Kaley, welcome. It's lovely to have you. Thank you for coming on the show. Would you mind just introducing yourself to our listeners and maybe a little bit of background into Upvest as well?

**Kaley Addo** (2:34)
Of course. Yeah. My name is Kaley. Thank you so much for having me. As you mentioned, I'm currently Head of UK Operations at Upvest.
At Upvest, we provide an investment infrastructure in the form of an investment API.
We allow banks and fintechs to offer investment products for their end users without having to build custody and brokerage systems from scratch. We actually began in Germany in 2017 before obtaining our UK license and moving to the UK in 2024 Now we empower the investment offerings of the likes of Zopa Bank, Plum and Revolut.

**Ross Gallagher** (3:11)
Really cool. Some really cool brands there. Great partnerships. It's lovely to have you, Kaley. Thank you for coming on.

**Kaley Addo** (3:17)
Thank you.

**Ross Gallagher** (3:18)
Last but not least, we have another very welcome back to the show for Jason Mikula, the publisher of Fintech Business Weekly. Jason, likewise, always great to see you.
How are things going?

**Jason Mikula** (3:31)
It has been a toasty summer here in the Netherlands, but I am surviving and it's always great to be back.

**Ross Gallagher** (3:38)
Awesome. It's always great to have you. Look, we've got some really great stories that I'm very excited to dig into. I suppose without further ado, let's do just that.
This first story comes from FnAxtra with the headline, Klana applies for US banking license. Klana has taken another step beyond its buy now pay later routes, applying for US banking license to establish Klana Bank USA. The Swedish Fintech already operates as a licensed bank in Europe, but a US license would allow it to bring more of its banking operations in-house, supporting payments, savings, lending, and merchant services under a regulated banking entity. The move comes as Klana continues to broaden its proposition. Alongside BNPL, it's launched a debit card, announced plans around stable coins, and entered the peer-to-peer payment space. Klana also joins a growing number of global fintechs seeking greater control over their banking infrastructure. Earlier this year, Revolut applied for US National Bank Charter, while Wise has been exploring becoming a bank and has taken steps to deepen its own banking capabilities in both the UK and the US. Dave, I'll come to you first on this one. Obviously, Klarna has built its reputation as one of the world's leading buy-now-pay-later providers.