After nearly a decade of powering online payments for Nigerian businesses, Paystack is officially moving into banking (lending) with Paystack Microfinance Bank.
The acquisition marks Paystack’s clearest step yet beyond payments. Now, the fintech-giant moves into the more complex, higher-margin world of lending and banking infrastructure.
What’s In The Deal?
The Stripe-owned fintech has acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank, secured a regulated microfinance licence, and can now hold deposits and issue loans for the first time. 
The newly acquired institution will be rebranded as Paystack Microfinance Bank (Paystack MFB). It will operate as a separate, regulated sister company to Paystack’s core payments business.
While the two entities will collaborate closely, each will maintain its own licence, governance structure, and product scope.
This setup is there to limit regulatory risk while giving Paystack room to experiment with banking products without becoming a full commercial bank.
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Why Paystack Is Moving Beyond Payments
For years, Paystack has helped more than 300,000 Nigerian businesses collect payments online, processing trillions of naira every month. That scale came with a constraint.
While Paystack could move money, it couldn’t hold it. Funds still sat with partner banks, keeping Paystack one step removed from the most lucrative parts of the financial stack.
According to Paystack’s Chief Operating Officer, Amandine Lobelle, the shift was driven by persistent merchant demand. Businesses didn’t just want to get paid. They wanted working capital, faster access to credit, and reliable banking tools. These are needs that payments alone couldn’t solve.
What Paystack Microfinance Bank Will Offer
Paystack MFB will begin by lending to businesses, with consumer products planned for later. Initial offerings will include working capital loans, merchant cash advances repaid from future sales, overdrafts, and traditional term loans.
The bank will also provide banking-as-a-service (BaaS). That allows fintechs and platforms building financial products to plug into regulated banking infrastructure without holding a banking licence themselves.
However, unlike lenders that rely on static bank statements or collateral, Paystack plans to underwrite loans using real-time transaction data from its payment network. That data advantage enables faster approvals and more accurate risk pricing.
The approach reflects Paystack’s belief that payment data offers one of the clearest views into a business’s true financial health.
Paystack Microfinance Bank: From Checkout Tool to Financial Infrastructure
The move represents more than a product expansion. Payments positioned Paystack as a checkout layer for Nigeria’s internet economy. But banking moves it closer to where value and friction exist.
By bringing deposits and lending in-house, Paystack can increase margins per business. It also reduces reliance on legacy institutions for liquidity management and regulatory compliance.
Competition, Partnerships, and What Comes Next
Paystack MFB enters a crowded market that includes traditional microfinance banks such as LAPO, Accion, and Baobab.
There are also digital lenders like Carbon and Fairmoney, and fintech platforms including Moniepoint, OPay, PalmPay, and Kuda. Still, Nigeria’s small business financing gap remains massive, estimated between ₦13 trillion and $32 billion.
Importantly, Paystack says the move does not affect its existing banking partnerships for payments.
This includes collaborations with institutions such as Titan Trust Bank. The microfinance bank will also operate independently of Brass, the business banking startup backed by a Paystack-led investor consortium.
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