Adyen nominates Klarna CFO Niclas Neglén for 2027 start

Adyen has nominated Niclas Neglén, currently chief financial officer of Klarna, to become its own CFO and a member of its statutory Management Board. The Dutch payments company said on 22 September 2026 that the appointment is planned to take effect on 1 February 2027, subject to approval by the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, and by Adyen's shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting. For UK merchants and fintech professionals who deal with Adyen, either as a payments provider or as a competitor, the immediate point is continuity: Adyen has said the nomination does not change its standing financial objectives, and it has announced no change to UK products, pricing, contracts or regulatory permissions.

The planned transition

Adyen's Supervisory Board has proposed Neglén's appointment, but it requires regulatory approval from De Nederlandsche Bank and a shareholder vote at an extraordinary general meeting. Adyen had not published the meeting notice, agenda or other appointment documents by 25 September 2026, saying only that these would follow in due course. That means the date of the shareholder vote, and the precise terms of Neglén's appointment, are not yet public.

Hwa Tsao, who has been serving as Adyen's interim CFO, is due to remain in that role until 1 February 2027. After that date, Adyen said Tsao is expected to resume responsibility for finance operations as senior vice-president of Group Finance.

Who is Niclas Neglén

Neglén joined Klarna as CFO in March 2021 and has also served on the board of Klarna Group plc since February 2025, according to Klarna's 2026 annual general meeting notice. Before Klarna, he held leadership positions at HSBC Private Bank from April 2016 to March 2021, including chief operating officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Earlier still, he spent January 2003 to April 2016 at GE Capital, including a period as CFO of its UK business — roughly 13 years at the firm.

Klarna's August 2026 transition announcement described Neglén as CFO for six years, which sits slightly at odds with the March 2021 start date recorded in its own AGM notice. The gap looks like rounding towards his anticipated departure date rather than a change to the facts; this article uses the dated March 2021 start recorded in the AGM notice.

What happens at Klarna

Klarna announced on 18 August 2026, before Adyen's nomination, that Neglén would leave the company in early 2027. It did not name Adyen as his destination at the time. Klarna said he would remain CFO during the transition, continuing to lead its finance organisation and investor engagement, and that it had started searching for a New York-based successor. Klarna had not named that successor by 25 September 2026.

Adyen's financial targets are unchanged

Adyen said explicitly that Neglén's nomination causes no change to its standing financial objectives. Those objectives, most recently set out alongside its half-year results on 13 August 2026, are as follows.

For the six months to 30 June 2026, Adyen reported net revenue of €1,302.9m, up 19% year on year (21% at constant currency), processed volume of €803.8bn, up 24%, and EBITDA of €641.5m at a 49% margin. These are group-wide figures; the cited results provide no UK-specific breakdown of Adyen's revenue, merchant numbers or processed volume.

Why this matters to UK merchants and fintech professionals

Adyen is not a peripheral player in UK payments infrastructure. Its UK branch was authorised as a bank by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority in September 2023, under Part 4A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. GOV.UK Pay, the UK government's payment platform, names Adyen as its payment service provider for non-Crown organisations, including local authorities and police forces, and lists Adyen's Financial Services Register number as 779800. Readers who want to check the current scope of that authorisation, or which specific permissions apply to a given service, should consult the Financial Services Register directly rather than relying on a summary.

A CFO change at a company operating at this scale, with a regulated UK banking branch and public-sector payment work through GOV.UK Pay, matters to two groups. Merchants who route payments through Adyen have an interest in the financial discipline, oversight and reporting that a CFO brings to a company of this scale. Competing payments and fintech firms will watch how a leadership change of this kind is executed at a company of Adyen's size.

None of this amounts to evidence that UK merchant terms are changing. Adyen's announcement did not alter pricing, contracts, service levels or regulatory permissions, and the company's own statement stressed continuity of its financial objectives rather than a strategic reset. The clearest signal in the announcement is that Adyen wants the market to read this as continuity, not a change of direction.

What is not yet known

Adyen has not disclosed Neglén's pay, incentives or contractual term. Those details are expected to appear in the extraordinary general meeting documents or subsequent remuneration disclosures.

What to watch next

The next formal milestones are Adyen's convening notice for the extraordinary general meeting, the shareholder vote itself, and confirmation of De Nederlandsche Bank's approval. Klarna's naming of a successor CFO will close the loop on the other side of the move. Readers wanting the primary detail as it emerges should follow Adyen's press and investor relations pages directly.