How Flagright’s Enterprise-Grade Availability Enables Real-Time Compliance at Zero

Customer
Zero
Industry
Fintech
Region
UK

Zero Fintech is reshaping what it means to build a responsible financial product. Founded in the UK, Zero places sustainability at the heart of everyday finance—offering customers tools to understand their environmental impact, reduce carbon emissions, and make money decisions that align with their values.

At the heart of this experience is a well-considered technical architecture. Zero doesn’t rely on a one-size-fits-all platform. Instead, the team opted for a modular approach: using Integrated Finance (IF) to power its personal account functionality and Flagright to manage compliance and risk for incoming and outgoing transfers.

The two systems were integrated in parallel, each solving a critical piece of the puzzle. Together, they enable Zero to issue accounts, handle payments, and apply real-time transaction monitoring—all with clarity, control, and minimal friction for 
the end user.

Flagright’s exceptional customer support has played a pivotal role in facilitating the expansion of our AML operations. They efficiently address all our requests.
Author
Viktorija Gudeliauskiene
Head of AML Operations at kevin.
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“We built both integrations separately and by design. Each system serves a distinct purpose, and together they operate as one coordinated platform. That separation gives us control, flexibility, and the ability to scale on our terms.” - Kate Hodge, Chief Product Officer at Zero

A Modular Stack With Clear Boundaries

Zero’s architecture is modular by design. It enables them to deliver a range of products and services to their customers independently of one another and offers flexibility, allowing them to adapt their services without causing disruption to other parts of the system. A perfect example of this is their integrations with Integrated Finance and Flagright.

Integrated Finance enables Zero to issue accounts, process incoming and outgoing transfers, and supports the transfer of funds following card payments. Flagright, in turn, provides a stable compliance layer, equipping Zero to meet its compliance obligations with precision by offering compliance-related processes including screening, transaction monitoring, and risk scoring. Every transaction is risk-scored in real time, while internal policies—covering sanctions, fraud, and broader regulatory requirements—are enforced programmatically through Flagright’s rule engine. The division of responsibility is deliberate. Financial operations flow through IF. Compliance and risk logic live within Flagright. But the coordination between the two is tightly managed by Zero’s own system, ensuring each part performs consistently and with minimal latency.

Flagright offered real-time screening, fraud & sanctions checks, compliance logics (rule engine) and risk scoring while integrated finance offered account issuing, incoming/outgoing transfer processing and card payments.

When an incoming transfer is initiated, Integrated Finance notifies Zero of the pending transaction. Zero then performs a set of internal checks, including a real-time compliance review through Flagright. Once the evaluation is complete, Zero returns a decision to IF on whether the transaction should proceed.

For outgoing transfers, the flow begins within Zero’s platform. Before notifying IF, Zero sends the transaction to Flagright, where all monitoring, screening checks, and risk scoring are handled. Depending on Flagright’s decision, Zero then forwards the transfer to IF for execution.

Zero achieved 3 weeks integration time and 99.998% uptime with Flagright AI-native transaction monitoring and AML compliance solutions.

A Step-by-Step Integration Process

From the outset, Zero approached both integrations with structure and intention. The integration with Integrated Finance was planned in phases—starting with client and account creation, followed by incoming and outgoing transfers, management of funds for card transactions, and open banking support. At each stage, the team worked closely with IF’s implementation contact to align on workflows, set up system configurations and complete test cases once implementation was complete.

Flagright’s onboarding followed a similar rhythm: Zero reviewed the available APIs, set up the sandbox, tested key flows, and configured compliance rules to fit internal policies. While the integration itself was technically straightforward, special attention was paid to the rule setup and risk scoring to ensure the compliance layer was aligned with Zero’s risk appetite and operational model.

“Each layer of the integration had to work on its own before we brought it all together. We started with incoming and outgoing transfers, added monitoring, and then stitched the systems together into a fully coordinated flow.” - Kate Hodge, Chief Product Officer at Zero.

The setup with Integrated Finance took around four to five months end-to-end given the broader scope of functionality and coordination with multiple third parties. Flagright’s integration was completed within a few weeks, with most of the effort focused on configuring compliance rules and aligning risk logic. This phased and parallel approach gave the team time to test each layer independently before integrating the flows into a cohesive system.

A Foundation That Just Works

Zero’s platform operates with real-time compliance and financial operations fully integrated. New customers are onboarded into both systems, and transactions are evaluated through automated screening and monitoring before being processed. The coordination between systems allows Zero to enforce policy decisions without disrupting the user experience.

Zero’s compliance operations are led by MLRO & CRO Wendy Davies, who has seen firsthand the value of maintaining independently integrated systems. By managing each integration separately, the team retains full control over how every part of the stack behaves. Updates to compliance rules, financial workflows, or infrastructure logic can be rolled out without waiting on upstream changes. In parallel, Flagright’s built-in case management has helped streamline investigations—enabling the team to review alerts efficiently, document decisions with clear audit trails, and automate parts of the resolution process using AI-powered features.

“As MLRO, I need confidence that our compliance controls are reliable and consistently applied. Flagright gives us that foundation—automated decisions, clear responsibilities across systems, and the ability to operationalize policy without manual overhead.” - Wendy Davies, MLRO & CRO at Zero.

Zero now runs a compliance framework that’s not only embedded into its operations—but designed for scale. From onboarding to real-time transaction decisioning, screening, monitoring, and alert resolution, Flagright enables Zero’s team to maintain a clear, automated compliance process at every stage.

“Zero’s implementation is a strong example of how teams can move quickly without compromising on structure. They opted to choose best-in-class vendors rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, and IF’s modular stack and programmable ledger enabled Zero to use a third-party processor and a transaction monitoring solution that was right for them—without compromising the user experience.” - Daniel Cronin, Co-founder & COO at Integrated Finance.
“What impressed us most about Zero wasn’t just their speed but their discipline. They built for resilience from day one, and it shows. This is what modern compliance should look like: embedded, invisible to the user, and fully aligned with the product vision.” - Baran Ozkan, Co-founder & CEO at Flagright.

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