The Institute of Travel Management (ITM) has completed the first phase of its Payment
Services Directive (PSD2) campaign to steer industry collaboration and consistent guidance
for travel buyers on the complexities of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).

Initial discussions among ITM’s PSD2 Taskforce, which was established last month, have led
to significant progress in aligning overall understanding of which payment types and
booking processes are in scope for SCA. The taskforce consists of 18 stakeholders
representing card payment providers, TMCs, OBT, GDS suppliers, legal advisers and travel
buyers This includes Amadeus, American Express, Airplus International, Barclaycard
Payments, Amex GBT, BCD Travel, CWT, SAP Concur, Travlaw, and members of ITM’s
Industry Affairs Committee

Another key initiative within phase one was an ITM-hosted PSD2 webinar when a panel of
experts clarified SCA requirements in a business travel environment and answered
questions raised by ITM’s buyer community. Moderated by ITM’s head of programmes Kerry
Douglas, the panellists were Dawnne Unger, e-commerce programme manager at Amex
GBT, Paul Dear, senior director for supplier management, SAP Concur, and Lina Weston,
head of core product at Barclaycard Payments. Outcomes of the webinar were
subsequently shared with ITM’s supplier members and are available to download via the
ITM Resource Centre.*

Phase two of the PSD2 campaign is now underway with ongoing dialogue among the PSD2
taskforce and a second webinar scheduled for April 15th. The purpose of this phase is to
share further insight into SCA exemptions alongside actionable steps that travel managers
can take to prepare and educate their travellers.

“Whilst PSD2 doesn’t officially come into effect until September 14th, suppliers can start
switching on SCA from May onwards, and the timing is entirely up to each hotel, airline or
car hire provider in the chain. The clock is ticking, but it’s like a relay race as everyone in
the supply chain needs to be in place to pass the baton, because so many business travel
transactions have several intermediaries in the payment journey,” said Scott Davies, CEO,
ITM

“Phase 1 of this initiative was about starting the conversation among all the stakeholders,
getting everyone on the same page and at the same level of understanding as to what
types of payments and bookings require SCA. I’m delighted to report that we have made
invaluable progress so far in helping our members and the industry eco-system start to make
sense of the complexities of PSD2 in the context of business travel transactions.

“The ITM taskforce will now press on with phase two which is very much focussed on giving
buyers the resources and knowledge they need to minimise any disruption from SCA to their
travellers, bookers and programmes as business travel returns post-Covid,” said Davies.

*Webinar recording: https://www.itm.org.uk/resource/detail/224
30 min key takeaways: https://www.itm.org.uk/resource/detail/226

Session notes & FAQs: https://www.itm.org.uk/resource/detail/225

Useful links & glossary: https://www.itm.org.uk/resource/detail/219