Salt Bankstarted offering securities trading to its Romanian customers through a tie-upwith German-based Upvest, bringing international market access to users of theyear-old digital bank.The bank's500,000 customers can now buy and sell securities through their existing mobilebanking app. Salt Bank, which launched in October 2024, has become one ofRomania's faster-growing financial apps since its debut.Discover howneo-banks become wealthtech in London at the fmls25BancaTransilvania, Southeast Europe's largest financial group, backs the digitalbank. The investment feature represents Salt Bank's first move beyond standardbanking products like accounts and payments.As forUpvest itself, this month it also expanded its partnership with the UK branchof the broker Webull, which addedaccess to London-listed shares after introducing fractional stock trading inJune, also enabled by the Berlin-based fintech.Salt Bank Targets WealthManagement MarketSalt Bankplans to add features and expand the investment offering after the initiallaunch. The bank reached its current customer base in twelve months, though ithasn't disclosed revenue figures or profitability metrics."AtSalt, banking has always been about people — about giving them the freedom tomove at their own pace, in a way that feels right for them," said GabrielaNistor, Salt Bank's CEO. "With Salt Investments and our partnership withUpvest, we wanted to take that freedom even further: for people to be able toinvest globally."The moveputs Salt Bank in competition with other Romanian financial apps addinginvestment features. Traditional Romanian banks have offered brokerage servicesfor years, though typically through separate platforms rather than integratedbanking apps.Theinvestment product is currently limited to Romanian customers. Salt Bank hasn'tannounced timing for potential expansion to other markets where BancaTransilvania operates.Upvest TradingInfrastructure to Handle Growing VolumeUpvest'sInvestment API powers the new service, connecting Salt Bank's app to globalsecurities markets. The Berlin company, founded in 2017, processes more than100 million trades each year for clients including Revolut andOpenbank. Among the partners is also thechallenger bank N26.MartinKassing, Upvest's CEO, pointed to Salt Bank's growth rate as evidence of demandfor modern financial products. "We are proud to partner with them on theirjourney into investments and to provide the investment infrastructure thatenables their end users to access securities effortlessly and at a lowcost," he said.Theplatform handles trading execution, custody, and back-office operations. SaltBank customers pay transparent fees for trades conducted within the mobileinterface they already use for banking.Upvestemploys 250 people and counts Earlybird and Bessemer Venture Partners among itsinvestors. The company remains independently managed by founders MartinKassing, Til Rochow, and Tobias Auferoth.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.