Worldpay Partners with Mastercard to Introduce Virtual Card Program for Travel Agents

By Lauren Hinton · 20 November 2024

Travel agents that sell travel bookings directly to end consumers have long been challenged by how to best manage payments to suppliers such as airlines, hoteliers and other travel service providers. Worldpay® is launching an exciting new partnership with Mastercard to improve how these supplier payouts are facilitated and to 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 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 dynamically respond to various supplier relationships.

Transparency: Through the flexibility of the virtual card offering, Worldpay is bringing new levels of transparency to payments between travel agents and their suppliers. Both travel agents and travel suppliers can optimize 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 the cash flow for travel distributors and decrease credit risk requirements. As a leading payment provider to the travel industry, Worldpay can create bespoke technical and commercial set-ups within the community.

Commenting on the launch Chiara Quaia, senior vice president, 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 who is now empowering its travel agency customers through the Mastercard Wholesale Program by providing them 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, which will provide full flexibility of the program without complex implementation setup. “Worldpay has a long-term strategic commitment to the travel and airlines space, supporting more than 130 airlines and the top three agencies across the globe. We processed more than $100 billion of transactions for travel industry last year which provides us with the expertise to understand the unique payments needs within this space,” said Nabil Manji, Head of FinTech Growth & Financial Partnerships at Worldpay. “Working with Mastercard to deliver value across the entire travel ecosystem through this virtual card program, we will be able to help travel agents realize new efficiencies in their payments processes while increasing travel supplier virtual card acceptance through more transparent and data-driven practices.”