Giving the travel industry an upgrade with digital payments.

We enabled Nium to create a virtual card system twice as fast as the industry standard.

Use cases

Travel / FX
Operating regions

Global
Customers

Hotels, airlines & online travel agencies

The partner

Fintech innovator Ixaris – acquired by Nium in 2021 – has over 25 years’ experience in the travel payments industry. It offers a range of virtual cards that travel agents can use to make payments to a unique recipient, for a specific amount, in a desired currency.

The challenge

Travel industry payments can be incredibly complex, with international agencies dealing in multiple currencies at once. Exchange fees make this expensive, while currency fluctuations mean cash flow can be unpredictable.

Nium was looking for a payment partner to help revolutionise the way the travel industry conducts transfers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic by offering simpler, faster payments without unexpected fees. The company knew the key to unlocking a higher volume of transactions was reducing the time taken to issue and load cards to less than a second – ideally around 500 milliseconds.

The solution

We’re certified by Mastercard and Visa to process credit, debit, or prepaid card transactions globally – a big asset in the travel industry.

By combining our suite of 150 highly configurable APIs into a single powerful plug-in, Nium was able to issue and load virtual cards at the staggering speed of just 200 milliseconds.

The payoff

Before our partnership, Nium's customers could pay in just three currencies. The company now provides 15 products across nearly 30 currencies, offering superfast, secure, and efficient payments all over the world.

And with our access to virtual cards from multiple providers, Nium has been able to increase acceptance rates by offering more card types from both Visa and Mastercard on one platform.

We’ve also provided Nium with extra features, including higher load amounts and additional authorisation flows, without the need for additional Bank Identification Numbers. Offering more control over their cards, without the extra admin.