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Conferma adds MasterCard In Control for business travel

The integration provides Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and their corporate clients with the ability to streamline and modernise their travel payment and reconciliation processes, reducing costs, while improving control and compliance with corporate travel policies.

MANCHESTER – Conferma, the experts in Virtual Card Number (VCN) technology for the corporate travel sector announced they have integrated the MasterCard In Control for Business Travel solution into Conferma’s global travel payment network. The integration provides Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and their corporate clients with the ability to streamline and modernise their travel payment and reconciliation processes, reducing costs, while improving control and compliance with corporate travel policies.

The agreement builds on the companies’ existing relationship at a time when the use of virtual payments is growing exponentially. Conferma’s global travel payment network provides payment networks and issuer banks with a gateway to the travel industry. Through a single connection to Conferma’s network, MasterCard will provide all its corporate clients and issuing banks with links to the leading TMCs, Global Distribution Systems, self-booking tools and online travel agencies, at the point of sale.

From airline tickets to rental cars, hotel rooms and more, MasterCard In Control for Business Travel enables TMCs and their corporate clients to make payments more securely and reconcile expenses more quickly, which helps control spending, reduce operational costs and ensure compliance with corporate travel policies. MasterCard In Control for Business Travel users can generate a unique VCN to track individual travel bookings across all payment categories, irrespective of the booking platform used. Each travel booking is charged back to the VCN by the travel supplier, triggering an automated process that matches and reconciles 100% of travel expenses to booking data, providing a fully transparent view of travel spend.

The solution also allows the additional company-specific data needed to allocate charges to the appropriate cost centres to be linked to the unique VCN when travel is booked, enabling further efficiency savings through direct integration with expense management and ERP systems.

“For most businesses, travel and entertainment is the second largest controllable expense after salaries and benefits, yet in many cases their payment and reconciliation processes are not fit for purpose,” said Richard Crum, Group Head, Global Commercial Cards – T&E for MasterCard. “The agreement with Conferma is great news for companies and TMCs looking to bring innovation to their travel expense operations, an area still plagued by inefficient, error prone manual processes. They will benefit from greater control and a significant reduction in administration costs across all their payment categories.”

Simon Barker, CEO of Conferma, commented, “We are delighted to be extending our relationship with MasterCard. This new agreement builds on Conferma’s leadership position at the heart of travel payments, enabling VCN technology to streamline the outdated and inefficient payment processes across the travel industry. With cost reduction still the number one priority for travel managers, adopting VCNs provides businesses with a proven, rapid, low-risk, low-cost way to increase efficiency, cut costs and gain more control.”

Photo caption: Simon Barker, CEO of Conferma.

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Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.

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