Standard Chartered, IATA tie up forh payment platform for airline industry

Standard Chartered said it has partnered with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to launch a payment platform for airline industry in India.

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Global banking group Standard Chartered on Thursday said it has partnered with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to launch a payment platform for airline industry in India.

In addition to existing payment options such as credit cards, IATA Pay will be a new payment option that enables participating airlines to offer instant payment options such as UPI Scan and Pay and UPI Collect (Request to Pay), Standard Chartered said in a statement.

The service, which is already available in several European markets, leverages the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), a domestic real-time payments scheme, thereby enabling consumers to instantly pay for airline tickets from their bank accounts, it said.

It also said that following the launch in India, Standard Chartered will be supporting the rollout of IATA Pay in other markets as well.

IATA Pay in India is powered by Standard Chartered's Straight2Bank Pay, a payment platform that helps online merchants digitalise collections via multiple payment options through a single global connectivity, as per the statement.

"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, said Philip Panaino, Global Head of Cash, Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered.

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, he said.

Standard Chartered said that the new service will not only help participating airlines avoid bilateral integrations with multiple service providers, but also eliminate the need to pay an acquiring fee to card acquirers.

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, said Javier Orejas, IATA's Global Head of Banking and IATA Pay.

The launch of IATA Pay builds on Standard Chartered and IATA's existing partnership to co-create an industry-wide payments solution, said the statement.

In 2021, the two partners had launched IATA EasyPay in India, a pay-as-you-go payments solution that streamlines the ticketing and settlement process among IATA-affiliated travel agents, member airlines and IATA.