Solaris management sets a new strategic direction to build a highly automated banking platform, backed by majority shareholder SBI.
Berlin, March 25, 2026. Solaris has announced a comprehensive strategic repositioning and is starting its transformation into Europe’s first AI-native bank. Just under three months after taking office, the new management team led by CEO Steffen Jentsch is setting a new direction: together with majority shareholder SBI Group (Tokyo), Solaris will develop its embedded finance platform into a pan-European financial infrastructure, with processes largely automated with artificial intelligence. The strategy builds on Solaris’ German full banking license, its API-based platform, ten years of experience in the Banking-as-a-Service market, and long-term financial support guaranteed by SBI.
Ten years ago, Solaris was one of the first companies in Europe to prove that cloud-based banking via APIs works. Today, we are taking the next logical step. We are developing a platform that combines this infrastructure with AI and rebuilds banking processes from the ground up. With the EU AI Act and DORA, Europe is creating the regulatory framework needed for this step. Together with SBI and in close dialogue with the regulatory authorities, we are developing Solaris into an AI-native bank and creating new growth through the broad use of artificial intelligence in banking.Steffen Jentsch, CEO Solaris SE.
SBI invests globally in the financial infrastructure of the future. Solaris is our central European building block: a fully licensed German bank with a modern, API-based architecture that provides access to the entire European Economic Area through Germany. The shift to an AI-native bank makes Solaris the platform through which we can realize our vision of a digital financial infrastructure in Europe.Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President & CEO of SBI Holdings.
To support this, Solaris is developing an operating model in which AI agents handle operational processes, while humans remain responsible for control and governance. In the next phase, Solaris will further align its business model around standardized and reusable modules of its financial platform and redesign key end-to-end processes. A central focus is on existing partnerships such as ADAC and Boerse Stuttgart Group, for which Solaris is developing data- and AI-driven financial services.
For partners, the AI-native architecture will mainly bring faster product development, greater scalability, and continued integration through the existing API infrastructure. At the same time, Solaris is implementing a transformation program to improve efficiency, redesign end-to-end processes in line with regulatory requirements, and align the organization with its AI-native strategy.