Abacus and Visa strike new alliance
SINGAPORE – Abacus International is working with Visa to enable Abacus-connected travel agents to develop new corporate client relationships.
Through a centrally billed ‘virtual account’ called Visa Central Travel Account, companies will have greater billing flexibility, and spend visibility through Visa reports that include enhanced data provided by Abacus-connected travel agencies.
The Visa Central Travel Account will also give Abacus agencies better prospects of being nominated as a designated corporate travel agency by companies that use the Visa Central Travel Account.
Abacus International vice-president marketing, Brett Henry said, “This product is designed specifically to meet the business needs of both travel agents and corporate travellers.
“The value for Abacus-connected travel agencies is that their businesses can enjoy improved cash flow through faster revenue turnaround as they may be paid up to 90 percent faster by merchant banks.
“In some markets, travel agents can recover their revenues charged to the Visa Central Travel Account within three working days instead of the traditional 30 days credit cycle that is associated with the manual processing of cash and cheques.”
Henry added, “With BSP payment terms shortened to between one and seven days, travel agents in this programme will be able to better meet their payment obligations.
“In addition, with Abacus PowerSuite being certified to generate enhanced data in Visa’s required format, Abacus agencies do not have to go through the certification process with Visa individually, making it a hassle-free process for them to provide enhanced data that is compliant with the Visa-required format.
“For added convenience, any updates to the Visa Global Travel Agent specifications will be incorporated into the programme by Abacus.”
Ian Jarrett
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