Virtual Account: A New Digital Treasury Model for Milano Cortina 2026

Managing the financial flows of a major international event, such as the Winter Olympics, requires an organisational and technological vision. It must be a vision that can rise to the challenge of its operational complexity. The Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, tasked with coordinating hundreds of stakeholders, from federations and sponsors to media and institutions, has chosen to innovate its treasury management by adopting an advanced digital model based on virtual accounts.

In collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, the Foundation has implemented a Virtual Account Management solution that allows for centralised liquidity management, simplified reconciliation of incoming payments, and maximum transparency towards all stakeholders.

In this article, we explore how the adoption of virtual accounts has transformed the Foundation's financial management, outlining the digitalisation journey of its treasury, the operational and strategic benefits achieved, and the role of Intesa Sanpaolo in enabling a model of efficiency applied to a global event.

NEW HORIZONS FOR CORPORATE TREASURY
 

Within the context of corporate finance’s digital transformation, virtual accounts have become one of the most effective solutions for innovating treasury management. Businesses are looking for tools that simplify the management of financial flows by offering a centralised view of liquidity and streamlined reconciliation of incoming and outgoing payments. These are elements now essential for efficiency and control.

Corporate treasury is undergoing a deep transformation: it is no longer just about managing receipts and payments, but about closely monitoring every cash movement, reducing operational risks, and optimising decision-making processes.

According to PwC’s 2025 Global Treasury Survey, 74% of businesses worldwide are investing in digital treasury technologies, such as automation, artificial intelligence, and advanced cash management systems, to improve forecasting and liquidity management. The survey also highlights that more than half of companies now consider treasury to be a key growth enabler, confirming its increasingly central role in business decision-making.

In this context, treasury becomes a true strategic control centre, able to contribute to business growth and operational efficiency. Integrating digital solutions such as virtual accounts enables a new level of accuracy, flexibility, and automation.

WHAT VIRTUAL ACCOUNTS ARE AND WHAT THEY ARE FOR
 

Virtual accounts are digital accounts linked to a single actual current account. They’re created to simplify the management of financial flows and the reconciliation of receipts and payments. 

Each virtual account is assigned a dedicated IBAN, which clients can use for specific purposes (e.g., assigning it to a particular counterparty or using it to uniquely track individual transactions) without needing to open additional current accounts.

From an operational perspective, all funds received via virtual accounts are automatically pooled into the company’s main account, which enables liquidity centralisation and full visibility of cash flows.

This digital architecture simplifies the reconciliation of receipts and payments and reduces administrative costs. It is a particularly effective solution for organisations managing numerous economic relationships or complex projects, such as large-scale international events or corporate groups, as it combines operational accuracy, efficiency, and centralised control.

MILANO CORTINA 2026: AN EXAMPLE OF ORGANISATIONAL, SPORTING AND MANAGERIAL EXCELLENCE
 

Established on 9 December 2019, the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation is responsible for organising and promoting the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. This is one of the most complex and ambitious projects on the international stage. It involves an extensive network of stakeholders, including sports federations, Olympic and Paralympic committees, public institutions, sponsors, media partners, and service providers.

The Foundation’s objective goes beyond simply delivering a major sporting event. It aims to leave a positive legacy for the territory by promoting inclusion, sustainability, and innovative management.

The complexity of this mission is reflected in the financial domain too, where managing hundreds of financial relationships requires advanced control tools and next-generation digital solutions.

THE NEED FOR ADVANCED FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
 

Managing an event of this scale means coordinating incoming flows from a large number of counterparties.

The Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation had to address challenges related to reconciliation, traceability, and control: each federation, sponsor, or commercial partner makes payments at different times and using different methods.

It therefore needed a system that would:

• Ensure accurate oversight of receipts from numerous counterparties.
• Reduce the number of actual current accounts by centralising liquidity management.
• Assign each counterparty a unique identifier to simplify traceability.
• Provide reporting tools to analyse flows and manage financial planning.

In such a complex environment, traditional treasury management would not have sufficed. Instead, a flexible and scalable platform was required, which was capable of responding promptly to the evolving Olympic project.

A DIGITAL SOLUTION FOR MANAGING FLOWS: THE MILANO CORTINA CASE
 

To meet these needs, the Foundation opted to adopt, in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, an advanced Virtual Account Management system integrated into the Inbiz portal.

The project included the creation of over 500 virtual accounts, each linked to a single main account. This way, each counterparty is assigned a dedicated virtual IBAN to make payments, while all funds are concentrated in one real account.

The platform allows the Foundation to:

• Autonomously generate and manage virtual accounts in self-service mode. 
• Monitor cash movements in real time via an advanced dashboard.
• Produce detailed reports for automatic reconciliation.

Thanks to this digital architecture, the Foundation has transformed its treasury into a benchmark model for the financial management of major international events.

THE BENEFITS OF AN INNOVATIVE TREASURY MODEL
 

The introduction of virtual accounts marked a turning point for the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation’s treasury management. They deliver benefits that go well beyond operational simplification.

All funds are centralised in a single actual account, which provides an integrated view of liquidity and more efficient cash flow planning. This centralisation has allowed for optimised financial management and has enhanced the treasury’s analytical and decision-making capabilities.

Digitalisation has also significantly boosted administrative efficiency: the reduction in the number of physical accounts, combined with the ability to autonomously create and manage new virtual IBANs, has led to tangible savings in terms of costs and resources. The platform enables the Foundation to quickly activate new virtual accounts for each new federation, sponsor, or partner. This ensures scalability and operational flexibility in a constantly evolving context.

In this way, virtual accounts have transformed the treasury into a more agile, automated, and transparent system, capable of supporting the complexity of a global event with the same precision and coordination that characterise Olympic competitions.

FROM OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT TO STRATEGIC VISION
 

The Milano Cortina 2026 experience demonstrates how digitalisation can transform treasury from an operational function into a true strategic asset for an organisation. Through the adoption of virtual accounts, the Foundation has enhanced its financial governance, increased its control capabilities, and managed complex flows involving hundreds of counterparties in an agile and transparent manner.

This result underscores the strategic value of digitalisation in modern treasury, capable of combining operational efficiency, data control, and an overall perspective.

This approach represents a benchmark model for all complex organisations looking to evolve towards a more innovative, integrated, and data-driven treasury that’s capable of supporting long-term growth and organisational resilience.

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