Deutsche Bank Backs Bolt’s Pan-European Payments Leap with Modern Acquiring Infrastructure
Bolt upgrades its payment stack with Deutsche Bank’s acquiring infrastructure, reinforcing a scalable, secure, and pan-European payments experience for customers.
Deutsche Bank and Bolt Build a New Payments Path
Deutsche Bank has made a bold move to strengthen its presence in pan-European payments by partnering with urban mobility leader Bolt. The German banking major now powers Bolt’s latest card acquiring solution across the UK and continental Europe. With increasing demand for secure yet flexible digital payments, this partnership marks a pivotal shift in how fintechs and traditional banks work together.
This initiative, live since April 2025, allows Deutsche Bank to serve as the card acquirer for Bolt’s growing payments volume. The system is already transforming how Bolt processes payments, enhances user experience, and scales operations across its expanding markets.
A Strategic Fit for Fintech and Banking
At its core, the partnership demonstrates how legacy financial institutions and high-growth tech companies can align for mutual benefit. By streamlining payment flows and integrating directly with Visa and Mastercard via Silverflow’s cloud-native platform, Deutsche Bank has created a resilient, fast, and scalable system.
This capability allows Deutsche Bank to settle card transactions and manage payouts efficiently, enabling Bolt to focus on core mobility operations. Such partnerships signal a turning point for traditional banks embracing digital evolution in the pan-European payments space.
Simplifying Payments in a Complex Ecosystem
The partnership aims to cut complexity in the payment chain, which has traditionally been bogged down by multiple intermediaries and outdated infrastructure. Deutsche Bank’s end-to-end acquiring capability now shortens that chain.
Using its scheme memberships with global card networks, Deutsche Bank routes transactions via Silverflow’s modern APIs. Funds are then deposited seamlessly to Bolt, enhancing transaction speed while meeting compliance standards.
Because cloud-native architecture underpins the system, it enables faster onboarding, better uptime, and real-time monitoring—all crucial factors for scale-focused fintechs like Bolt.
Aligning with Regulatory and Growth Goals
As Europe tightens rules around digital finance, fintechs must adapt quickly. Bolt, scaling across multiple regions, needed a compliant and unified payment backbone. Deutsche Bank’s infrastructure provides that support while ensuring the platform is regulation-ready across markets.
The pan-European payments model is becoming vital as platforms like Bolt move across borders. This partnership equips Bolt with consistent service quality while helping Deutsche Bank meet its strategic goals of enabling scalable merchant solutions.
From Processing to Partnerships: Deutsche’s Digital Focus
Deutsche Bank has been steadily expanding its capabilities in digital payments and merchant services over the past few years. The Bolt partnership builds on its broader agreement with Silverflow, designed to reshape the card acquiring landscape.
This alliance not only brings in cloud-era agility but also shows Deutsche Bank’s shift towards technology-enabled financial solutions. As demand for fast, reliable, and secure payments grows, such projects reflect the evolving dynamics of pan-European payments.
Customer-Centric Benefits for Bolt Users
At the user level, the changes bring visible improvements. Customers can now expect faster, smoother, and more consistent payment experiences across Bolt’s ride-hailing and mobility services.
Whether commuting in London or Lisbon, the unified system ensures low-latency processing and quick payment confirmation. In an age where speed and reliability dictate customer satisfaction, this advancement strengthens Bolt’s value proposition significantly.
Executive Insights: A Step Towards Scalable Payments
Kilian Thalhammer, Head of Merchant Solutions at Deutsche Bank, said the partnership supports their mission to offer modern, scalable, and regulatory-compliant payment infrastructure. It aligns well with Deutsche’s ambitions to serve next-generation digital platforms across Europe.
Jüri Laur, Director of Product (Commerce) at Bolt, emphasized how this collaboration allows Bolt to consolidate its fragmented payment architecture. Now, the platform can expand faster without worrying about region-specific payment issues or compliance hiccups.
A Model for Fintech-Banking Collaboration
This partnership stands as a model for other fintechs navigating Europe’s evolving financial ecosystem. Fintechs gain speed and scale, while banks bring trust, compliance, and deep infrastructure expertise.
As pan-European payments become more embedded into platforms, collaborations like this offer a way forward for the broader fintech sector. Regulatory pressures, customer demands, and competitive pressures will continue to force innovation.
Yet, rather than build everything in-house, strategic fintechs now recognize the value of partnering with large financial institutions.
The Road Ahead: Scaling with Confidence
Bolt’s growth ambitions require robust financial infrastructure. With Deutsche Bank and Silverflow supporting the backend, the platform is well-positioned for its next growth phase.
Additionally, this project helps Deutsche Bank prove the power of cloud-native banking infrastructure—something that can attract more fintech partners in the future.
By supporting pan-European payments with scale and compliance, this partnership opens doors for similar fintech-banking alliances. As digital economies evolve, expect many more legacy institutions to modernize by embracing such agile, cloud-first models.
