With borders reopening and air travel steadily returning to pre-pandemic levels, DBS announced it has partnered with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to launch IATA Pay in three key Asian markets, which started with Hong Kong and will be followed by Indonesia and Singapore next year.
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IATA Pay, which is currently live in more than 20 markets, enables travellers to pay for air tickets purchased online by directly debiting their bank account, providing greater financial inclusion for consumers who may not have access to credit or debit cards. In turn, the direct payment solution unlocks significant cost savings for airlines which incur around USD20 billion of payment processing fees each year mainly from card payments, while providing same-day settlement, reconciliation, and refund management for an enhanced customer experience. With direct debiting from consumers’ bank accounts, airlines are also better able to manage their working capital with near instant cash flow from sales.
Through IATA Pay, DBS will enable participating airlines to collect payments with generated Dynamic QR code. With DBS Max solution, when customers scan and pay from their bank accounts, IATA will receive real-time confirmation of payment, facilitating easy reconciliation with end-of-day reports.
Boris Chan, Managing Director, Head of Global Transaction Services, Institutional Banking Group, DBS (Hong Kong) Limited, said, “The payments landscape has been rapidly evolving to cater to increasing demands from corporates and consumers. IATA Pay is one of the few solutions that benefits both sides by enabling cost savings and financial inclusiveness – which are particularly beneficial to smaller airline players and communities with limited access to credit cards. We look forward to partnering IATA to scale the adoption of IATA Pay in more geographies in the coming year.”
Javier Orejas, Global Head of Banking and IATA Pay, said, “IATA Pay is committed to leveraging developments in payments solutions to meet the needs of the airline industry and air travelers. We are excited to partner with DBS, which has created a seamless payment solution for these markets.”
DBS’ digital engineering approach for IATA Pay focused on the association’s immediate requirements, with a clear view of their longer-term aspirations, while leveraging the bank’s deep insights in the payments and consumer space. The emphasis was on understanding the customer journey, and then developing a prototype to bring the consumer experience to life. This process was tailored and applied to various payment methods in Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia.
