Klarna

Revenue comes from two main sources: merchant transaction fees paid by retailers for offering Klarna at checkout, and consumer-side income including interest on installment loans, interchange fees from the Klarna Card, and subscription fees from its tiered membership plans. The firm also earns interest on deposits held in its balance account at WebBank.

Yes. Klarna retains unsecured installment loans and revolving credit receivables on its own balance sheet, which means it carries direct credit risk and relies on its own underwriting engine. This is a fundamental structural difference from pure payment networks that simply pass transactions between parties.

Deposits in Klarna's balance account are held at WebBank, an FDIC-insured institution. Klarna is not itself a bank; deposit insurance coverage applies only if certain pass-through conditions are met, and funds made available before WebBank receives them may not be FDIC insured until received.

Klarna relies on a proprietary real-time credit-assessment engine that operates at the point of sale. The system evaluates transaction-level data rather than pulling a traditional credit report for every purchase, allowing instant approval decisions during checkout.

Klarna offers tiered paid membership plans—Plus and higher—that provide elevated cashback rates, travel benefits, monthly shopping deals at selected stores, and a physical Klarna Card. The subscription model creates recurring revenue separate from transaction-based fees.