Legal · Plain English
No-custody statement
The single most important thing to understand about how money moves through Dealium: it doesn't. Here is exactly what that means — in plain language, with nothing hidden in the fine print.
Last reviewed 11 July 2026 · Applies to the Dealium platform and app at app.dealiumai.eu
Plain-English summary
This page explains our non-custodial model in everyday words so it's easy to understand. It is a summary, not a contract — the binding terms are in the Terms of Service. If anything here appears to differ from the Terms, the Terms govern.
In one sentence
Dealium is a software provider. We build the workspace where a cross-border commodity deal is structured, verified, tracked, and settled. We do not hold, transmit, or convert your money — not for a second, not in any account, in any currency. When money needs to move, a licensed third-party payment provider that you choose moves it, and Dealium only ever sends an instruction to release once you have approved it and the deal's conditions have been met.
That single design decision is why Dealium is not a bank, not an e-money institution, not a money transmitter, and not an escrow agent. We never take custody of client funds, so those roles simply don't apply to us.
What Dealium does — and never does
It helps to separate the two jobs in any trade: running the deal and moving the money. Dealium does the first. Licensed payment providers do the second.
- We never hold your funds. There is no Dealium wallet, pooled account, or client-money balance. Your money is never on Dealium's books.
- We never transmit your funds. Money travels directly between your account and your counterparty's, over a regulated payment rail. It does not route through Dealium.
- We never convert your funds. Any currency exchange is performed by the licensed provider, under their regulation and their rates — not by us.
- We never move money on our own initiative. Nothing is released automatically or unilaterally. A release requires your approval and the deal conditions being satisfied.
Who actually moves the money
Every payment is executed by a licensed third-party payment provider that you select and contract with directly — for example, a regulated payments partner you connect to your deal. Your relationship for the money movement is with that provider and is governed by their terms and their regulatory permissions. Dealium is provider-agnostic: you bring the rail you already trust, and we speak to it through a standard interface.
Because the licensed provider is the party that receives, holds, and pays out funds, the regulated activity — safeguarding, transmission, currency conversion — sits with them, where the appropriate licences and protections live. Dealium sits alongside as the software that coordinates the deal.
When — and only when — Dealium acts on money
Dealium's role in a payment is limited to issuing a release instruction to the licensed provider. We only do that when both of the following are true:
- You approve it. A release is a deliberate, authorised action by your organisation. Dealium never approves on your behalf.
- The deal conditions are met. The terms both sides accepted — proof of quality, shipping documents, milestones, and similar — have been satisfied and recorded.
To reduce the risk of error or fraud, release approval is also separated between two people in your organisation: the person who approves a release cannot be the one who executes it. Every deposit, hold, and release is written to an append-only ledger, so there is always a clear, tamper-evident record of what happened and who authorised it.
What we mean by "escrow orchestration"
You'll see us use the word escrow orchestration. Because "escrow" carries a specific legal meaning, here is precisely what we mean — and what we do not mean.
| Legal escrow (what Dealium is not) | Escrow orchestration (what Dealium does) |
|---|---|
| A licensed escrow agent receives and holds the money in its own account until conditions are met. | Dealium never receives or holds the money. It stays with you and the licensed provider throughout. |
| The escrow agent is a custodian of client funds and is regulated as one. | Dealium is a software coordinator. It tracks the conditions and, on your approval, tells the licensed provider to release. |
| Money moves because the agent decides the conditions are met. | Money moves because you approve it and the recorded conditions are met — the provider executes. |
In other words, "escrow orchestration" describes the coordination of a conditional payment — checking that the agreed conditions are satisfied and routing your approved instruction to the licensed rail — without Dealium ever taking custody of the funds. It delivers the safety people want from escrow (money moves only when the deal is right) without Dealium becoming an escrow custodian.
Why this is good for you
Not holding your money isn't a limitation we work around — it's the point. It means:
- No custody risk. Your funds are never exposed to Dealium's balance sheet, solvency, or operational failures.
- Regulated where it counts. The money is handled by providers whose entire job is to hold and move funds safely, under the right licences.
- You stay in control. You choose the rail, you approve every release, and you keep a complete, verifiable record of each step.
The short version
Dealium is software for running commodity deals. We never hold, transmit, or convert your funds. Licensed providers you choose move the money, only when you approve and only when the deal conditions are met. That is why we are not a bank, an e-money institution, a money transmitter, or an escrow agent — and why "escrow orchestration" means coordination, never custody.
Questions about how this applies to your deals? Talk to us, read the full security model, or review the binding Terms of Service.
The safety is in the architecture, not the promise
See how conditional payment control works across licensed rails — with two-operator release and an immutable ledger.