ConnectPay Spins Off Serdis: The €14B Core Banking Platform Built by an EMI for EMIs

ConnectPay has commercially launched Serdis, its proprietary AWS-native core banking engine, marking a rare shift from internal infrastructure to a licensed B2B solution. For fintech professionals, this represents a significant move toward infrastructure independence, allowing institutions to bypass traditional software vendors in favor of a platform built and battle-tested by a regulated peer.

What was announced

ConnectPay, a prominent Lithuanian electronic money institution (EMI), has brought Serdis to the European market. The platform, whose name is derived from the Lithuanian word for "core," was originally developed under the internal project name "Mars." The transition from an internal tool to a commercial product follows a successful full-scale deployment in July 2025, where ConnectPay migrated its entire live operations—representing €14 billion in annual turnover—onto the system.

The migration was executed over a single weekend following nine months of parallel testing with a legacy provider, resulting in zero customer-visible downtime. Serdis is designed specifically for EMIs and financial institutions that require high-resilience infrastructure. Unlike many core banking engines developed by pure software firms, Serdis was engineered by a regulated operator to solve its own operational pain points, including safeguarding account management and regulatory reporting. This "built to run, not sell" philosophy ensures that the platform is grounded in the practical realities of financial supervision.

The platform is AWS-native and aims to address the growing regulatory pressure under frameworks like DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act), which intensifies scrutiny on third-party infrastructure risks. By using a core built by an active EMI, clients receive compliance updates that the developer has already implemented for its own regulatory requirements. The solution is now available to European financial institutions looking to replace legacy systems or reduce dependency on third-party vendor roadmaps, offering a model where infrastructure ownership is treated as a strategic advantage.

"Most core banking platforms are engineered by developers who have never had to manage a safeguarding account, file a regulatory report, or answer to a central bank. Serdis was built to run, not sell – born out of years spent operating on legacy systems and hitting the limits of third-party roadmaps. When we engineered our own core, we solved our deepest operational pain points, and that's what we're bringing to the market."

Marius Galdikas, founder & CEO of ConnectPay.

The companies involved

ConnectPay is one of the largest electronic money institutions in Lithuania, a jurisdiction that has become a central hub for European fintech. As a regulated entity, it provides a range of banking services, including payments and embedded finance solutions, to a global client base. The company has established itself as a key player in the Baltic region, with its leadership actively involved in the broader ecosystem; Marius Galdikas, the CEO of ConnectPay, also serves as the chair of the Lithuanian Fintech Association.

Serdis emerges as an independent brand born from ConnectPay’s internal engineering efforts. Led by Tadas Bakutis, who serves as Chief Technology Officer at Serdis, the platform represents a strategic pivot for the organization into the core-banking-as-a-service market. While many Tier 1 banks and EMIs remain tethered to legacy systems or third-party software providers, the launch of Serdis positions the group as both a financial service provider and a technology vendor. This dual role allows the company to leverage its firsthand experience with central bank requirements and operational resilience to serve peer institutions across Europe that are navigating similar technical and regulatory hurdles.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has followed ConnectPay’s technical and strategic evolution closely, previously reporting on the initial internal deployment of this infrastructure in ConnectPay Launches In-House Core Banking System to Strengthen Resilience. This move toward self-sufficiency was preceded by the company’s expansion into new service models, as seen in ConnectPay Launches the First Simplified Embedded Finance Version. Beyond infrastructure, the firm has been active in international partnerships, notably when ConnectPay and GenToo Partner to Launch Compliance-First Digital Banking for Spain’s Retail Market. The company’s leadership has also contributed to broader industry discussions regarding the user experience gap in modern banking, featured in One Tap to Pay, Three Steps to Bank: Why Your Smartphone Gets You, But Your Bank Still Doesn’t.

What this means

The commercialization of Serdis signals a maturing of the EMI sector, where the most successful players are no longer content with being mere distributors of third-party technology. By licensing its own core, ConnectPay is challenging the dominance of traditional core banking vendors who often lack the "front-line" experience of operating under a central bank’s supervision. This move puts pressure on legacy providers to prove their agility in the face of DORA and other tightening European regulations. The industry is watching to see if other large EMIs will follow suit, potentially leading to a market where the most resilient institutions also become the primary technology landlords for their peers.