Riverty Establishes Bank in Luxembourg to Expand Embedded Finance for Merchants
Riverty, the fintech division of Bertelsmann's Arvato Group, has received an EU banking licence and will establish a bank in Luxembourg to expand embedded payment, credit and liquidity services for merchants across Europe.
The licence, granted under the EU Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), came through after a ten-month application process. Riverty said regulatory approval was secured in under a year, and that the new bank is scheduled to begin operations in July 2026.
Formerly known as Arvato Financial Solutions, Riverty is the buy-now-pay-later and consumer finance arm of the German media and services group Bertelsmann. Its payment and credit business already serves more than 1,800 merchants and around 25 million customers, processing over 235 million transactions a year across European markets.
The Luxembourg bank is intended to give Riverty direct control over the financial infrastructure underpinning those services, allowing it to develop integrated banking products tailored to merchant ecosystems and to deepen its consumer finance offering across multiple European markets.
Carsten Coesfeld, the Bertelsmann Executive Board member responsible for Riverty, said the licence carried significant strategic weight. "The license is of great strategic importance for Riverty," he said. "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."
Andreas Barth, chief executive of Riverty, framed the move around merchant demand for financial services built into the buying journey. "Merchants increasingly need seamless payment, financing and banking services embedded into the customer journey," he said. "With the banking license, Riverty is building the European gateway for merchants, co-creating financial products that drive loyalty and customer lifetime value."
Oliver Kuhaupt, Riverty's Chief Risk Officer and designated chief executive of the new bank, said the authorisation marked a shift in how the company operates. "With the banking license, we're taking direct responsibility for risk, compliance and execution at scale," he said.
The launch positions Riverty among a growing group of embedded finance providers seeking their own banking authorisations rather than relying on third-party partners, a model that gives them tighter control over lending, compliance and the economics of the products they distribute through merchant channels.
