Sabre, Conferma Pay and Mastercard join forces to power the travel economy with virtual cards

Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR) a leading software and technology provider that powers the global travel industry, and Conferma Pay, a global fintech firm that specializes in payment technology, today announced a new partnership with Mastercard to accelerate the use of virtual cards for business-to-business (B2B) travel payments.

Today’s announcement builds on Sabre’s August 2022 acquisition of Conferma Pay.  The collaboration with Mastercard is the next step in advancing Sabre’s goal to create an open and independent travel payment ecosystem.

Digitization of travel payments with virtual cards helps address the historic challenges associated with B2B leisure and corporate travel payments.  The securely generated, single use card numbers provide a link between booking and associated payments to third party suppliers.  Travel buyers and suppliers are therefore able to easily track and reconcile payments, as well as benefit from flexible pricing, financing options, and enhanced security through card payment guarantees.

“The payments industry is in the midst of a revolution and there is an increased need for travel companies to better manage the whole payment experience,” said Roshan Mendis, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Sabre Travel Solutions.  “Companies in the travel space – including travel management companies, travel agencies, corporations, issuers and technology partners – need sophisticated solutions and seamless connections.  Sabre is taking strategic steps to fulfill the needs of our industry, beginning with the acquisition of Conferma Pay.  Now, the new partnership with Mastercard will help Conferma Pay to build new and enhanced digital capabilities in virtual cards, transforming the payment experience for issuers.”

As part of the agreement, Mastercard has agreed to make a minority investment in Conferma Pay, which will continue to operate independently and serve the entire travel industry and beyond.  Mastercard’s investment in Conferma Pay is subject to customary closing conditions.

“A combination of experience, technologies and capabilities will accelerate travel payment innovation and drive inclusive and sustainable growth for the sector,” said Chris Fendley, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Partnerships at Mastercard.  “Virtual cards deliver visibility, boost liquidity and increase control over B2B payment flows, which enhance payment strategies and empower organizations across the travel value chain to run, grow and protect their business, which has never been more essential.” 

Conferma Pay connects issuers to more than 700 travel management companies, all the major global distribution systems and more than 100 online booking tools.  Conferma Pay is fully integrated with all the major card schemes and serves more than 50 banking partners, who issue Conferma Pay generated virtual cards in nearly 100 currencies.

“We’ve already made significant inroads in the B2B travel space through partnering with Sabre,” said Martin Cowley, interim CEO at Conferma Pay.  “We are excited about the new investments.  This, combined with our existing strong relationships, will enable Conferma Pay to build on our global footprint and be at the forefront of addressing industry challenges and opportunities.”

Sabre’s Virtual Payments will continue to offer Conferma Pay services – with increased capabilities that help travel buyers, agencies and corporations best support travel customer needs.  Sabre Virtual Payments is a unique, secure, automated and integrated end-to-end payment solution designed to simplify and add value to the transactions that TMCs, OTAs, travel agencies, corporations and travel suppliers do every day.  Sabre Virtual Payments takes all the capabilities of Conferma Pay and its network of issuers and combines it with seamless integration across Sabre products for -connected travel buyers, agencies and corporations.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements herein are forward-looking statements about trends, future events, uncertainties and Sabre’s plans and expectations of what may happen in the future. Any statements that are not historical or current facts are forward-looking statements. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “expect,” “believe,” “likely,” “encouraged,” “resilient,” “outlook,” “goal,” “opportunity,” “target,” “future,” “trend,” “plan,” “guidance,” “anticipate,” “will,” “forecast,” “continue,” “on track,” “objective,” “trajectory,” “scenario”, “strategy,” “estimate,” “project,” “possible,” “may,” “should,” “would,” “intend,” “potential,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, including statements regarding the potential timing, completion, results or benefits of any transaction, investment or partnership. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Sabre’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, and there can be no assurance regarding such items. More information about potential risks and uncertainties that could materially affect Sabre’s business and results of operations is included in the “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking Statements” sections in its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 18, 2022, its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on November 2, 2022 and in its other filings with the SEC. Although Sabre believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, Sabre cannot guarantee future events, outlook, guidance, results, actions, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Unless required by law, Sabre undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events after the date they are made.