The International Air Transport Association has announced progress of its New Generation IATA Settlement Systems (NewGen ISS) with the selection of Edenred and Multiservice Technology Solutions to implement the EasyPay payment solution for travel agents in more than 100 markets.

Travel agents can set up and fund the new EasyPay e-wallet to pay for airline tickets issued through the IATA Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP).

The voluntary “pay as you go” payment option is added to traditional cash remittances and credit card payments.

IATA expects EasyPay will also enable a simpler form of agent accreditation and ease financial security requirements on agents, allowing them to sell beyond their cash capacity. Airlines also benefit from a fast, secure and cost-effective payment solution.

Edenred and MSTS will support the airline organisation in the global deployment of the new payment solution, which is expected to first be piloted in Nordic BSP markets during the third quarter of this year.

Aleks Popovich, IATA’s senior vice president of financial and distribution services, says:

“We will be able to provide a convenient pay-as-you-go option to more than 58,000 IATA-accredited travel agents, enabling them to take advantage of new and more efficient forms of electronic payments.”

Additionally, IATA announced the selection of Allianz company Euler Hermes as the Global Default Insurance (GDI) provider and Featurespace as provider of a risk management and fraud protection solution.

The organisation has already launched the GDI in several European markets and will be rolling it out across global BSPs progressively over the next 18 months.