Supporting significant multi-currency volumes at Zalando
Published: Sep 2026
Best Risk Management Solution
Highly Commended Winner
Zalando Payments GmbH
Photo of Galina Kersten, Deutsche Bank and Anika Williams, Zalando Payments GmbH.
Anika Williams
Head of Treasury and Customer Payments Operations
Germany
Zalando is a leading European fashion ecosystem serving 60 million customers across 25 markets.
in partnership with
The challenge
As a licensed e-money institution, Zalando Payments (ZPS) must strictly adhere to §17 ZAG, requiring the absolute segregation of third-party funds from corporate liquidity.
While ZPS initially used a guarantee-based model, this setup had reached its limits as Zalando’s annual processing volume exceeded €30bn. The challenge intensified following Zalando’s acquisition and integration of ABOUT YOU, the German online fashion platform – further solidifying the need for a more scalable, multi-currency infrastructure.
In a category-defining move, ZPS designed an unprecedented hybrid safeguarding framework combining guarantees with escrow accounts across multiple jurisdictions. There was no precedent for implementing this model across more than 25 markets and ten currencies. With no established blueprint to follow, the project required navigating complex operational demands and addressing systemic challenges in close coordination with the regulator, BaFin.
The result is a pioneering architecture that sets a new industry benchmark for financial operations. By transforming a regulatory obligation into a high-capacity fintech foundation, ZPS has built a future-proof infrastructure that supports Zalando’s large-scale marketplace ambitions while meeting the highest global compliance standards.
The solution
To scale across more than 25 markets, ZPS implemented a pioneering hybrid safeguarding model. By combining guarantees with a network of segregated accounts, ZPS moved beyond a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to a flexible, high-capacity infrastructure capable of supporting significant multi-currency volumes.
The transition was a massive technological and human undertaking, marked by three core challenges:
Regulatory excellence.
Systemic transformation.
The human element.
After several stalled attempts due to project complexity, success required sustained stakeholder engagement and team motivation over a year-long sprint. The result is one of Europe’s most advanced fintech operating models. ZPS integrated modern escrow and cash management account (CMA) structures, reducing reliance on costly guarantees and automating complex pay-in/pay-out decisions.
“Winning a Treasury Today Adam Smith Award is an incredible achievement. It highlights our dedication to excellence, continuous growth and strong collaborative partnerships. It confirms that we are actively driving innovation and shaping the future of treasury and risk governance.”
Anika Williams, Head of Treasury and Customer Payments Operations
Best practice and innovation
The hybrid safeguarding solution supports a multi-billion euro platform. It moves compliance from a static requirement to a scalable operational architecture, showing that regulatory obligations can support growth rather than constrain.
While most institutions use rigid escrow accounts, ZPS created a flexible dual-layer framework. This system uses a guarantee as the baseline and escrow accounts as an ‘overflow’ mechanism, allowing the business to scale without bottlenecks. This transformation turned a ‘back office cost’ into a competitive profit centre and established a gold standard for reducing counterparty risk.
It unified the financial ecosystems of Zalando and ABOUT YOU into a single, fintech-driven operating model. This convergence of technological rigour and compliance leadership creates a future-proof infrastructure, setting a new benchmark for financial operations across large digital platforms.
Key benefits
Cost savings.
Risk mitigation.
Exceptional implementation (budget/time).
Future-proof solution.
Improved key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics.
Increased system connectivity.
Beyond compliance, the company has realised several strategic benefits:
Capital efficiency improved significantly through the optimised use of guarantees and escrow structures, transforming what was historically a pure cost centre into a measurable value contributor.
Risk exposure was reduced by diversifying safeguarding instruments, establishing a resilient model that sets a new industry benchmark.
Integrating safeguarding logic into SAP S/4HANA delivered operational excellence: seamless automation, real-time reconciliation and a highly transparent end-to-end process that now serves as a blueprint for regulatory innovation across the organisation.
What makes this solution truly impactful is its ability to remove one of the biggest invisible barriers to scale: regulatory complexity at the enterprise level. In an environment where billions of euros flow across borders every month, compliance is not a back office function – it is the foundation that allows an entire commercial ecosystem to operate with confidence.
Zalando Payments as the fintech of the Zalando Fashion Platform has built a powerful safeguarding set-up, combining guarantees and multi-currency escrow accounts across 25 European markets. What was once a complex regulatory requirement was turned into a scalable and robust treasury and risk management solution. By bringing together strong compliance, smart automation, and data-driven insights, the team created a foundation for Zalando’s continued marketplace growth. This success also reflects the close and agile collaboration with Deutsche Bank fintech team, a key factor in delivering such complex financial infrastructure. We truly recognise the achievement behind this work and congratulate the Zalando team on setting a strong example treasury transformation and safeguarding at scale.
in partnership with
The Adam Smith Awards are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2026 awards attracted 635 nominations. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards
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