Standard Chartered (LON: STAN) recently confirmed that it teamed up with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to introduce IATA Pay in India.
IATA Pay, which is available in several European markets, is an airline industry payment platform that provides optionality, convenience and an improved experience to consumers when buying tickets from participating airlines.
The service leverages the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), a local real-time payments scheme in India, thereby supporting clients with instantly paying for airline tickets from their bank accounts.
In addition to standard payment options like credit cards, IATA Pay will serve as a new payment method that allows participating airlines to provide instant payment options like UPI Scan & Pay and UPI Collect (Request to Pay). This service will help participating airlines avoid bilateral integrations with several different service providers. It will also remove the requirement to pay an acquiring fee to card acquirers.
IATA Pay in India is supported by Standard Chartered’s Straight2Bank Pay, a payment platform that assists online merchants with digitalizing collections through various options via a single global connectivity.
Philip Panaino, Global Head of Cash, Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered, stated:
“We are proud to partner with IATA in launching this new service for the aviation industry in India. IATA Pay reflects our commitment and focus in driving payment innovation and building solutions that are not just fit-for-purpose, but also deliver value to all participants in our clients’ ecosystem. This new service will simplify the payment process for the consumers, streamline the collection and settlement process for airlines, as well as enable IATA to provide an industry-wide e-commerce solution.”
Javier Orejas, IATA’s Global Head of Banking & IATA Pay, remarked:
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to simplify the payment process and drive enhanced experience for airlines and air travellers. As the industry rebounds in the post-COVID world, innovative and cost-effective solutions have become more significant than ever. IATA Pay underpins our focus on leveraging open banking and real-time payment solutions that will serve as a cost-effective alternative to conventional payment methods and bring efficiency to how money is collected and settled.”
The launch of IATA Pay further builds on Standard Chartered and IATA’s ongoing partnership to create an industry-wide payment service.
Last year, the organizations introduced IATA EasyPay in India, a pay-as-you-go payment serve that enhances the ticketing and settlement process among IATA-travel agents, member airlines and IATA.
After the launch in India, Standard Chartered will be focused on introducing IATA Pay in other major markets.