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Ixaris announces launch of Opn Payment Partner
Virtual card service to help travel sector improve control and efficiency of payments
World Travel Market, LONDON (7 November 2011) - Ixaris, an innovator in global electronic payments, today announces the launch of Opn Payment Partner, a new payment application that automates and controls payment processing, allowing businesses of any size to easily track purchasing activity and better manage cash flow.
Ixaris is launching Opn Payment Partner at this year’s World Travel Market, in direct response to the travel industry’s demand for improved efficiency, control and reconciliation in travel payments.
Competition in the travel industry is growing and margins are continually squeezed. At the same time, travel companies are facing challenges such as increased booking fees from airlines, cash-flow issues due to delays in the payment of commission and difficulties operating under the present card scheme compliance regime. As a result, parties across the entire value chain are seeking ways to minimise costs and introduce greater efficiencies to the payment process.
Using Ixaris’ Opn Payment Partner, travel industry organisations can quickly and easily create single-use virtual Visa or MasterCard cards to save money and improve their processes when purchasing tickets and booking travel services on behalf of customers. Opn Payment Partner can also be used to support travel introducers that need to take commission but pass on the remainder of the customer payment to parties such as hotels and car hire companies.
Critical for travel industry organisations that conduct business outside of the main travel distribution systems, Opn Payment Partner allows companies to choose from a range of card types to bypass high merchant surcharges on select transactions. The solution also saves companies from incurring forex fees as cards can be issued in either GBP or EUR currencies.
Alex Mifsud, CEO of Ixaris, said: “Over the last few months we have worked closely with the industry to develop this payment application so that it not only simplifies payment processes to deliver back-office savings, but also helps travel companies to transform their payment processes into opportunities that generate revenues, increase margins and improve cash-flow. Some of the leading European online travel companies are among the early adopters of Ixaris’ payment solutions and Opn Payment Partner has a range of uses that we are already offering to our first travel customers. We look forward to working with more travel companies to solve their payment challenges in the future.”
Payment Partner is one of several payment products powered by Ixaris Opn (pronounced “open”), an open payment platform allowing businesses to rapidly build and deploy customised global payment applications using configurable components (paylets). The platform offers open access to the Visa and MasterCard networks and global money transfer networks. Ixaris Opn can reduce the cost, complexity and time constraints of developing these applications from scratch.
Key Features
- Card issuing through API. Create one or multiple virtual cards and manage fund movements directly from the API
- Activity notifications. Keep track of issued cards with triggered system-generated messages (e.g., approaching card expiry date, reaching a minimum balance, etc.)
- Different card types. Issue cards through the Visa or MasterCard networks and select from single-use and multi-spend cards