Spotify and Endesa win Adam Smith Awards with the help of Deutsche Bank

Organised annually by Treasury Today, the Adam Smith Awards are now in their 17th year, and are recognised as an industry benchmark for corporate treasury achievement. From 389 submissions the judges rewarded the following client companies of Deutsche Bank:

• Highly Commended, Best Transaction Management Solution 2024: Spotify
• Highly Commended, Best Foreign Exchange Solution 2024: Endesa

Deutsche Bank is delighted that its clients have been recognised. This is clear evidence that the bank is moving the needle in terms of treasury innovation and that its holistic approach in cash management – combining expertise and solutions around payments, FX, and liquidity – pays off as client success.

Since its launch in 2008, Spotify has grown to become the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service – with more than 602 million users, including 236 million subscribers in more than 180 markets.

As part of its business model, the company receives subscriptions for its services in local currencies which are then exchanged. For the markets where Spotify does not handle the currency management internally, it works with multiple payment service providers (PSPs) all over the world. On finding the FX rates they were receiving in certain markets were not competitive Spotify aimed to substantially cut costs and increase the efficiency of its account receivables in these markets.

To achieve this, the company worked with Deutsche Bank on a setup that enables the treasury team to collect funds in the local currency via the existing PSPs and have those local collections routed to a virtual International Bank Account Number (VIBAN) in the name of Spotify with Deutsche Bank. The collections are received in and automatically converted to the functional currency of choice at pre agreed FX spreads, and then routed to Spotify’ header account at a third-party bank. The solution allows Spotify to collect in more than 30 currencies at lower costs and with improved visibility.

Endesa S.A., the largest utility company in Spain, wanted to modernise its FX workflow to create a fully automated and electronic process for cross-currency high-value onward payments to third parties. Deutsche Bank came up with a bespoke solution that doesn’t require Endesa to change processes on their end. Instead, it builds on the existing workflow and available international payment standards to link payment flows with FX trades. The new solution allows the company to trade FX via a multi-bank platform with minimal implementation effort. The result is that high-value payments – made three to four times per week – are now being processed with greater speed, efficiency and accuracy than before.

A full list of Treasury Today’s award winners can be found here.