Interview with Ingo Uytdehaage, CFO of Adyen

Company Overview

Adyen is a global financial technology company providing a unified payments, banking, and financial services stack to enterprises. Founded in 2006 in the Netherlands, the company operates under multiple regulatory permissions, including an EU banking license issued by the Dutch Central Bank, enabling it to provide acquiring, issuing, IBAN accounts, SEPA services, card programs, and embedded financial services. Adyen supports merchants globally with acquiring connectivity across all major card networks, alternative payment methods, and local payment rails.

Across Europe, Adyen offers EUR IBAN accounts, SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit, and SEPA Instant capabilities. The platform includes advanced risk management, AML transaction monitoring, KYB onboarding solutions, API-first integration, and a consolidated dashboard for payments, payouts, and financial operations. Adyen positions itself as a direct, end-to-end technology provider, contrasting with aggregators and intermediaries by controlling its acquiring, processing, issuing, and settlement layers.

Recent company developments include expanded support for Instant Payments infrastructure, upgrades to its embedded finance suite, and deeper integration of risk and authentication capabilities following regulatory changes in PSD2, PSD3 preparation, and ongoing updates in global compliance frameworks.

Interview

1. What are your main responsibilities as CFO of Adyen?

I oversee financial strategy, reporting, treasury operations, capital allocation, regulatory finance, and the integrity of our global financial infrastructure. My role also includes supporting product teams in building scalable financial services compliant with global supervisory frameworks.

2. How does Adyen’s regulatory structure support your product suite?

Our European banking license allows us to provide acquiring, issuing, IBAN accounts, SEPA services, and embedded finance without relying on third‑party intermediaries. Outside Europe, we operate through local acquiring licenses and regulated entities across the US, UK, APAC, and Latin America. This setup ensures end-to-end control over risk, settlement, and compliance.

3. What products does Adyen offer within SEPA?

We provide EUR IBAN accounts, SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit, and SEPA Instant. These services are fully API-driven, support bulk payouts, and are integrated with our acquiring platform for consolidated fund flows.

4. How extensive is your SEPA Instant coverage?

We support SEPA Instant for all eligible EU banks, routing payments dynamically based on scheme availability, bank connectivity, and cost-efficiency. Our platform automatically falls back to SCT if SCT Inst is unavailable.

5. How does Adyen support Open Banking?

We offer account-to-account payments through PSD2-based Payment Initiation Services and Account Information Services. These are built into our checkout, reconciliation tools, and risk engine. Connectivity covers major EU markets with standardized API endpoints.

6. What onboarding timelines can enterprise clients expect?

Onboarding typically ranges from a few days to several weeks, depending on the complexity of the business model and regulatory requirements. Required documentation includes corporate structure, UBO information, financial statements, AML policies, and expected transaction profiles.

7. How do you manage KYB and KYC compliance?

We perform full KYB on merchants and counterparties using automated data checks, registry lookups, and manual review for higher-risk cases. For issuing and embedded finance, we manage KYC for cardholders and end users where required.

8. Which verticals are core targets for your financial services?

We primarily serve enterprise merchants, platforms, SaaS providers, travel companies, subscription businesses, and global marketplace operators. Our risk appetite is tailored to regulated, transparent businesses with predictable transaction patterns.

9. How does Adyen position itself against competitors such as Stripe, Banking Circle, and Lemonway?

We differentiate by owning the full technology and regulatory stack. Unlike service aggregators, we operate our own acquiring, issuing, and banking infrastructure. This reduces dependencies, improves authorization rates, and simplifies reconciliation for multichannel global merchants.

10. What is the focus of Adyen’s card issuing capabilities?

Our issuing platform supports virtual and physical cards, corporate expenses, marketplace payouts, and consumer wallets. Issuing is available across several regions through our principal membership with major card schemes.

11. How does your AML and fraud prevention technology operate?

We use machine-learning models combined with rules-based screening, transaction scoring, behavioral analytics, and real-time monitoring. Tools are built into the acquiring and banking layers to provide unified risk assessment.

12. How do you support marketplaces and platform businesses?

We provide multi-party payments, split settlements, payout scheduling, KYB workflows, and fund safeguarding under our banking license. This reduces operational overhead for platforms scaling internationally.

13. Which APIs form the core of your technical stack?

Our Payments API, Checkout API, Banking API for IBAN accounts, Payout API, and Issuing API constitute the core. We provide webhook-based event notifications and offer a full sandbox environment to simulate payment flows.

14. What recent product updates have impacted merchants the most?

We recently expanded Instant Payments coverage, enhanced embedded finance capabilities for platforms, and introduced new authentication and network tokenization features supporting PSD2 and global scheme updates.

15. How does Adyen support FX and multi-currency operations?

We offer multi-currency acquiring, dynamic currency conversion options, and settlement in multiple currencies. Cross-border pricing is designed for enterprise-scale volumes and transparent FX operations.

16. What is Adyen’s pricing approach?

We operate on an interchange‑plus model for acquiring, with separate fees for processing and settlement features. Banking services such as IBANs, payouts, and issuing use volume-based and service-tier pricing without hidden markups.

17. What distinguishes your embedded finance offering?

We allow platforms to offer bank accounts, cards, and payouts natively, using our banking permissions and infrastructure. This includes compliance, risk, issuing, and settlement handled by Adyen.

18. How do you onboard international merchants across different regulatory regions?

We use localized onboarding pipelines aligned with EU, UK, US, and APAC regulatory frameworks. Our global compliance teams ensure each merchant operates under the correct licensed entity.

19. How do you support authentication requirements such as PSD2 SCA?

We offer a proprietary 3DS server, risk-based authentication routing, scheme tokenization, and delegated authentication partnerships. This optimizes approval rates while maintaining regulatory compliance.

20. What is the strategic roadmap for the next 12–24 months?

We plan to expand our Instant Payments infrastructure, scale embedded finance capabilities, deepen our issuing program in new regions, enhance network tokenization, and further integrate financial services into the unified platform.

FAQ

Does Adyen provide SEPA Instant IBAN accounts?

Yes, Adyen offers EUR IBANs with SEPA Instant for eligible banks.

Can platforms use Adyen to onboard sub-merchants?

Yes, Adyen provides full KYB workflows and multi-party fund flows for platforms and marketplaces.

Does Adyen support crypto or high-risk sectors?

Adyen focuses on regulated, transparent businesses and does not support unlicensed crypto or high‑risk industries.

Is Open Banking included in the platform?

Yes, PIS and AIS services are available through unified APIs.

Can Adyen issue cards?

Yes, Adyen issues virtual and physical cards across supported regions.

What documentation is required for onboarding?

Corporate documents, ownership structure, UBO details, AML policies, and transaction forecasts.