The demand for digital payments has been increasing worldwide as travel companies look to find ways to reduce costs, streamline operations and provide a secure and transparent payment experience. For the Middle East region, the B2B payments landscape is changing as the travel industry embraces digital payments.
To help facilitate better B2B payments, Amadeus has partnered with Apiso, the Middle East’s leading embedded B2B payment solution, and its financial services partner NEC Payments, to enable multi-currency and multi-channel B2B virtual card payments for its Middle East customers.
The Amadeus and Apiso partnership is a crucial step in the expansion of digital payment offerings in the Middle East. When combined with Amadeus’ B2B Wallet, the solution enables travel agencies to pay suppliers using the right virtual card for that specific booking scenario in the most efficient way. The partnership will help to deliver on specific customer requirements in the Middle East region and enable multi-currency transactions.
For travel agency, Dadabhai, based in the Middle East, a payments strategy was essential in 2020, as reducing costs became the priority when international travel was restricted. Bank guarantee charges were the main source of high costs for Dadabhai, with the traditional industry settlement scheme requiring guarantee payments every 15 days, against a backdrop of very limited travel bookings. The money remained stagnant and could have been used in other areas to help with the company’s cashflow during the challenging period.
With Amadeus B2B Wallet powered by Apiso, Dadabhai has been able to reduce the costs of bank guarantees by 35% by paying suppliers like airlines with virtual cards instead. By doing so, the agency can unlock the funds which would have been used for bank guarantees, in other areas of the business to help drive growth.
“This solution has been extremely helpful to our company during a challenging year for the travel industry. We have offices across the region and our collective bank guarantee costs were very large. The success of the Amadeus B2B Wallet has given us good incentive to continue to invest in our payments strategy. We plan to reduce bank guarantees by 50% in the next year. Wherever we have an option to use virtual cards to maximise our revenues, we will do so,” said Dadabhai’s Executive Director Nitin Menon
Michael Yadgar, Apiso’s Director of Special Projects said “The partnership with Amadeus will enable faster and better travel payments by combining our advanced processing technology and payments capabilities in the region with Amadeus’ advanced B2B Wallet technology. The ability to use multi-currency virtual cards is crucial for regional customers like Dadabhai as it helps to drive operational efficiencies and save costs on all types of transactions.”
“We’re very excited by the partnership with APISO and the expansion of the B2B Wallet solution in the Middle East and Africa region. The benefits of virtual cards in the B2B travel payments space mean we can support our global customers with a secure, transparent and effective solution. Integrating with APISO means we can combine the Amadeus payments expertise and technology with specific local payment methods, denominated in local currencies,” commented Damian Alonso, Head of Payer Services, Payments, Amadeus.
© Press Release 2021
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