Worldpay & Mastercard launch Virtual Card Program for Travel Agents

By Gloria Mathias

Worldpay^® has launched a new partnership with Mastercard to improve the facilitation of supplier payouts and create differentiated and tailored offerings for travel agents.

Through the Mastercard Wholesale Program, Worldpay can provide virtual cards to travel agents, helping increase payment efficiency for its clients in the UK and Europe. In addition, Worldpay will drive innovation, transparency, and flexibility in business-to-business (B2B) payments as the first provider to offer Mastercard’s dynamic product code capability, allowing travel agents and travel suppliers to agree on mutually beneficial terms.

Through this partnership, Worldpay will bring several key benefits to travel agents and suppliers in the travel sector:

• Flexibility and efficiency: With a virtual card from Worldpay, travel agents have a single method to make payments across more than a dozen currencies. Worldpay will also give travel agents the flexibility to respond dynamically to various supplier relationships.
• Transparency: Worldpay’s flexible virtual card offering is bringing new levels of transparency to payments between travel agents and their suppliers. Both agents and suppliers can optimise the benefits of virtual card payments, leveraging Worldpay acquirer insights and reporting.
• Expertise and scale: The virtual cards are an additional piece in Worldpay’s end-to-end payment proposition for the entire travel ecosystem. Connecting global acquiring with card issuing can improve travel distributors’ cash flow and decrease credit risk requirements. As a payment provider to the travel industry, Worldpay can create bespoke technical and commercial set-ups within the community.

Chiara Quaia, SVP of Travel Industries at Mastercard, said, “Businesses need the fast, secure, and flexible payment experiences that virtual cards offer.  We’re thrilled to accelerate the adoption of this technology with Worldpay, which is now empowering its travel agency customers through the Mastercard Wholesale Program by providing them with a dynamic B2B payment solution that can be tailored to specific product and market needs.”

As part of the collaboration, Worldpay will offer Mastercard’s dynamic product code API capability to its clients. This will provide full program flexibility without a complex implementation setup.

Nabil Manji, Head of FinTech Growth & Financial Partnerships at Worldpay, said, “Working with Mastercard to deliver value across the entire travel ecosystem through this virtual card program, we will be able to help travel agents realise new efficiencies in their payment processes while increasing travel supplier virtual card acceptance through more transparent and data-driven practices.”