Visa Powers Virtual Payments For Sabre

Global travel industry technology provider Sabre announced a partnership with Visa, the payments company, to support business-to-business virtual payments in the travel industry.

In a press release, Sabre and Visa said travel buyers and suppliers can make payments and get paid with virtual Visa commercial cards through the Sabre Virtual Payments solution. Through the partnership, customers of both companies can access Visa’s virtual B2B payment solutions, enabling faster and more secure payments as well as give them more insight into individual payments.

“Supporting the expansion of electronic B2B payments in the travel industry is one of our core focus areas,” said Kevin Phalen, global head, Visa Business Solutions, Visa in the press release. “By bringing together Visa and Sabre’s travel-industry capabilities and solutions, we will help further streamline cash flow and overall finance management practices for suppliers and buyers, helping remove barriers to transparency in business payments created by paper-based processes.”

Sabre said its virtual payments solution offers multi-bank, multi-card, credit and prepaid accounts that allow customers to select the best payment option to ensure the most favorable payment terms. Wade Jones, president of Sabre Travel Network, said combining Visa’s position in the digital B2B payment markets with Sabre’s payment technology and a global network of customers presents a big opportunity for the travel industry to adopt virtual payments. “Sabre’s investment in virtual payments and its integration into existing agency processes makes it quick and easy for our customers to adopt and use,” the executive said in the press release.

In July, Sabre and Visa announced a strategic global partnership enabling Sabre to offer integrated travel reservation and fraud management solutions to airlines, hotels, travel agencies and other travel organizations worldwide via CyberSource. CyberSource is Visa’s payment management platform. With the platform, Sabre provides a full suite of payment acceptance, fraud management and authentication services to its customers.