Allianz Trade teams up with Mastercard to better support B2B travel payments

Increasing protection for the travel sector

The B2B travel industry is global by nature. It needs highly secure payments infrastructure to support the transactions made between travel intermediaries (such as OTAs and travel agencies), payment facilitators (such as VCN issuers which provide digital credit cards that OTA funds), and travel suppliers (including airlines and hotels).

Historically, VCN issuers operating in the travel industry could not securely extend credit terms to OTAs. Instead, issuers have required OTAs to pay upfront – all the meanwhile, OTAs typically receive repayment from their clients at a later stage. This cash flow mismatch creates significant financial pressure for OTAs and, in turn, constrains business growth for their issuer. To help address this challenge, Mastercard developed the Mastercard Wholesale Program (MWP) over a decade ago to empower issuers with secure virtual card payments and the oversight and transparency needed to scale with confidence.

With Allianz Trade’s extended insurance offering available through Allianz Trade pay, Mastercard VCN issuers can more confidently support B2B travel flows. Should an OTA fail to settle its obligations, Allianz Trade will manage the collection process and indemnify the issuer if necessary. The solution is powered by actuary.aero’s payment data intelligence infrastructure, which translates transaction-level card payment data into real-time risk signals, allowing insurance decisioning to operate seamlessly within the payment flow. The infrastructure enables real-time, transaction-level insurance underwriting, unlocking a more agile, usage-based model.

“Thanks to our global intelligence network, giving us instant, secure access to data on 289 million corporates worldwide, and our deep expertise of the travel sector, we are in a strong position to assess non-payment risk from travel agencies and to give issuers the confidence to grow their business. With Allianz Trade pay, we are now able to extend our expertise directly to Mastercard VCN Issuers, providing our risk underwriting real time at transaction level. This combination sets a new standard for securing the entire value chain in the business travel industry”, said François Burtin, Global Head of e-commerce at Allianz Trade.

Chiara Quaia, Senior Vice President, B2B Travel at Mastercard said: “Issuers in the travel ecosystem have traditionally faced significant constraints supporting B2B travel payment flows, which has caused friction and limited growth. For over a decade, Mastercard has addressed this by driving travel payment innovation and providing organizations across the value chain with the tools they need to operate confidently. Allianz Trade is further supporting issuers by extending trade credit insurance – helping them participate in the world of B2B travel securely.”

Paving the way for deeper insights

Thanks to real-time risk assessment by Allianz Trade, OTAs receive instant feedback on their request. This optimization is a major shift, offering all stakeholders a seamless, fast, and fully digital process from onboarding to payment execution.

The benefits for VCN issuers are quite clear too: (i) higher customer retention through more secure and reliable payment flows; (ii) enhanced capital efficiency with reduced exposure and optimised risk usage; (iii) greater lending confidence supported by improved visibility and protection; (iv) expanded commercial opportunities driven by safer, scalable transaction volumes.