My Path in Payments: Dr. Lea Siering, Managing Director, Zalando Payments

Dr. Lea Siering didn’t take the usual route into payments. She began by studying Law, and Regional Science East Asia, before starting her career in banking regulation. But as Berlin’s fintech scene took off, her regulatory expertise became invaluable, placing her at the heart of a rapidly evolving industry.

Now, as Managing Director at Zalando Payments, she ensures payments run smoothly, securely, and in full compliance with regulations. Beyond this role, Lea is also chair of the working group Fintechs and Digital Banking at Bitkom, where she helps shape discussions around the future of digital finance.

In this edition of My Path in Payments, Lea shares her journey from law to leadership, the biggest industry shifts she’s seen, and what it takes to thrive in payments today.

‍From banking law to fintech: A career shaped by change 

Lea’s legal career began as a lawyer in capital markets and banking regulation, advising mainly financial institutions. But in 2014, Berlin was becoming a hotspot for fintech innovation.

“The fintech hype had really started in Berlin,” she recalls. “I was advising a lot of young, dynamic companies and payment service providers – helping them get their licences, build products and compliance structures, and navigate regulations in a pragmatic creative way.” 

Her close involvement with fintechs led to an in-house legal role as General Counsel at a securitization start-up. After a return to a law firm, she joined Finleap, a former well known Berlin-based fintech builder focused on banking, insurance, and asset management. There, working for a regulated payment institution as Chief Risk and Compliance Officer further sparked her passion for the payment industry and innovation.

“That’s when I really fell in love with the market succession side of regulated companies,” she explains while laughing at herself because probably few people share and understand this passion.

Lea went on to join Token.io, a leading open banking provider and regulated payment institution, where she worked as MD. She now brings that leadership to Zalando Payments, where she leads one of the most critical functions in the business.

Leading payments at Zalando

As MD of Zalando Payments – a regulated e-money institution – Lea oversees the market succession side including - amongst others - compliance, risk management, and information security. “With my background in regulation, I’ve always been responsible for the market succession side,” she says. “That includes compliance, risk management, anti-money laundering, legal, and public affairs – topics that are classically not market-related.”

Her role is critical in ensuring Zalando Payments meets evolving regulatory requirements while maintaining a smooth payment experience for customers across 25 countries. From risk assessment and fraud screening to payment processing and fund reconciliation, Zalando Payments provides an end-to-end solution for the broader Zalando Group, ensuring that every transaction aligns with both compliance standards and customer expectations.

“Our mission is to maintain a very user-friendly payment experience, which meets the specific needs of our end customers for each market we are operating in,” she adds.

With more than 50 million customers across 25 European markets with an array of locally relevant payment options, as part of our broader convenience proposition with the help of our payment partners, Zalando Payments helps to drive deeper customer relationships through locally competitive payment options (20+ payment options) that offer a seamless shopping experience for customers. 

Accordingly, Zalando Payments plays a key role in Zalando’s commitment to offering a smooth checkout experience. One example is its partnership with Klarna, which has expanded the ‘Pay in 3’ option to Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, and Denmark, in addition to existing markets such as France, Italy, and Spain. By continuously evolving its payment offerings, the company enhances the “try before you buy” experience and brings the fitting room to the customers’ home – a core part of Zalando’s value proposition. 

With a team based primarily in Berlin and Dortmund, Zalando Payments ensures that millions of customers can shop with confidence while providing platform partners with reliable and scalable payment solutions.

A customer-first approach to payments

Customer focus is embedded in Zalando Payments’ DNA, reflected in the company’s Our Founding Mindset (OFM) principles: customer focus, entrepreneurial thinking, speed and team spirit. 

“Every decision we make is guided by these principles, ensuring we always put the customer first,” Lea shares.

For Zalando Payments, this means constantly refining the checkout experience, minimizing barriers to payment, and adapting to local payment preferences. Lea highlights how important it is to offer customers the right payment methods for their region.

“Each country has a go-to payment method,” she says. “In Germany, BNPL - what we call in Germany “Rechnungskauf” -  still remains a leading payment method. And Twint has an incredible adoption rate in Switzerland.” Alternative payment methods (APMs) vary across markets, so understanding and adapting to these preferences is key to providing a great customer experience. 

Beyond regional preferences, Lea has also observed shifts in consumer behavior that shape ecommerce strategies. “It’s all about a seamless experience,” she says. “In my view, the easier the process, the more successful it is when entering a market. That’s why I personally really like Apple Pay and Google Pay, they’re simple and fast, and especially convenient for in-app purchases.” 

However, Lea notes that consumer adoption varies by age. “Younger customers tend to embrace new payment methods quickly, while older generations are less likely to switch.” This generational divide also impacts the adoption of open banking, which has gained traction in some markets but remains underutilized in others.

“People tend to stick to what they know, like PayPal, which I believe gained its dominance because it was in the beginning the only payment method on eBay.” In fact, Germany accounted for 19.25% of global PayPal users, totaling approximately 137.7 million users, making it the second-largest user base after the United States.

But payment habits aren’t fixed. Lea notes that adoption rates can also be influenced by how payment options are presented. “The order in the checkout can make a real difference,” she explains. 

Understanding these behavioral patterns – and how to influence them – is key for businesses looking to improve the checkout experience and drive conversions in different markets.

The biggest shifts in payments 

Having spent nearly a decade in payments, Lea has witnessed firsthand how the industry has evolved. She identifies three major shifts that have defined the past decade:

1. The transition from cash to digital payments
   “When I was younger, I traveled with Eurocheques. Withdrawing money was expensive, and so everything was based on cash,” she recalls. Now, everything's more digital. We pay using our mobiles on a daily basis.”
2. The rise of APMs
   Lea notes that customers have a preferred payment method depending on where they live. “For example, in Germany, it’s PayPal.” Localized solutions like Swish in Sweden and Twint in Switzerland have also gained traction, showing how consumer preferences can shape entire payment ecosystems. 
3. The growing focus on security and fraud prevention 
   ‍With cyber threats on the rise, security is an increasingly important part of the payments journey. “I think tokenization is something that is heavily discussed everywhere,” Lea says. “Especially in terms of increased cyber attacks and information security risks that we are all facing.” 

The challenges and opportunities shaping payments today 

For Lea, one of the biggest challenges in payments today is regulation. 

“A challenge that we are all facing is the rising complexity of regulation,” she explains. “It eats up a lot of internal resources and requires extensive documentation, checks, and controls.” 

Beyond regulation, speed is another major challenge. “When you want to be successful, you need to be the first mover or at least you must be fast,” shares Lea. At Zalando Payments, this means continuously adapting and offering the most relevant and customer-friendly payment methods in each country.

She also highlights the growing impact of AI regulation. “We also have the Artificial Intelligence Act which has already entered into force, at least partially. It’s quite interesting for large companies – not necessarily for payment service providers or e-money institutions, but in general for most companies, as AI is integrated into business operations in some way.”

Balancing regulation with speed

For Zalando Payments, staying agile while meeting evolving compliance demands is a constant balancing act.

Recent regulatory shifts, such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), have introduced new requirements for financial institutions. “As it was a new regulation, there was no real track record on how to implement these kinds of requirements,” Lea explains. But she shared that this allowed market participants room for creativity to think about how this can be integrated in the day-to-day business and still be compliant.

Lessons in leadership and resilience 

Throughout her career, Lea has encountered challenges daily, but she approaches each with a positive solution-orientated mindset. Rather than focusing on problems, she believes in finding swift, effective solutions – a perspective that has shaped her leadership approach. 

“You just have to get it done. You have to find a solution,” she says. “So the simple advice is never focus on the problem – just focus on the solution. And it’s the same with mistakes. Everyone makes them, but it’s about how you fix them and what you learn from them.” 

Beyond her own career journey, Lea is also committed to driving gender diversity in leadership. In an interview with Payment & Banking, she spoke about the need to challenge deeply ingrained stereotypes and increase the visibility of women in finance and technology: “Unfortunately, gender stereotypes still play a very large role in our society,” she told the magazine. “This shouldn’t be the case, but as long as terms like ‘working mom’ or ‘power woman’ are still in circulation, we still have a lot to do. They illustrate that gender stereotypes are still firmly anchored in our thinking, actions, and communication.”

When asked for her advice to women pursuing leadership roles in payments, Lea shared:

1. “Always go the extra mile and deliver more than others. It’s an unfair reality, but I still believe women often have to do a little bit more than their male colleagues.”
2. “The biggest advice I can give is to love your job. Love what you do, because then you’re also good at it.” 
3. “Speak up. Be creative. Bring yourself into the game as a changemaker – don’t be shy.”
   

The future of payments: What’s next?

Looking ahead, Lea predicts payments will continue evolving toward greater automation and intelligence.

“I think we will move away from a system where the end customer is fully responsible for managing their spending,” Lea says. “We’re already seeing account information services that provide guidance on what people can afford and whether they should – or shouldn’t – make a purchase based on their account balance.

Looking ahead, she sees the potential for payments to become even smoother. “Maybe we’ll move to chips because it’s very convenient. But of course, it’s also a bit scary as you wouldn’t need to carry anything to make a payment. But it would make paying for something even simpler.”

Whatever the future holds, one thing is clear: the payments industry will keep evolving, and leaders like Lea will be at the forefront of that change.

For more insights, explore the journeys of other industry leaders on our My Path in Payments series.