Offering new solutions to the travel sector

Our partnership with IATA enables agents and travel suppliers to provide a more local customer experience.

08 Mar 2023 . 4 min read

We’ve recently partnered with IATA (International Air Transport Association) and become the first banking provider to offer multi-currency pricing and foreign exchange (FX) services through their IATA Financial Gateway platform (IFG).

The new functionality allows agents and travel suppliers to purchase flights in their local currency. This localises the customer experience while also potentially protecting airline profit margins on these transactions – an industry first through indirect sales channels.

We’ve been providing multi-currency pricing solutions to the travel sector for over 20 years, supporting many of the world’s major airlines and online travel agencies. This partnership with IATA brings that market-leading functionality to a previously untouched area of flight bookings.

Nick Pedersen, Global Head of Digital, NatWest Markets commented: “We’re very excited to partner with IATA and offer a localised experience to travel agents via IATA’s IFG platform. Airlines can now realise the benefits across direct website and indirect agent channels for the first time, and we’re happy to be the first bank to offer this to the market in partnership with IATA.”

“IFG supports the availability of new FX options in many markets. We welcome the partnership with NatWest which brings its experience in supporting the travel industry to localising the customer experience across all sales channels” added Muhammad Albakri, IATA’s Senior Vice President, Financial Settlement and Distribution Services.

Under the terms of the partnership, IATA will embed our service within IFG, eliminating the need for integration on airline-by-airline basis.

About IATA

IATA is the trade association for the world’s airlines, representing some 300 airlines or 83% of total air traffic. The IFG platform is an omni-channel payment orchestration and management platform fully dedicated to the travel industry. It has been designed to provide airlines, agents, and all travel suppliers with the ability to manage and control their payment/settlement processes as well as expand payment diversity throughout all distribution channels and touchpoints on the passenger journey. For more information visit the IATA website.

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Offering new solutions to the travel sector

About IATA

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