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In the ever-churning world of travel payments, where airlines are forever trying to squeeze another dollar from their yield and online travel agencies (OTAs) live or die by conversion rates, one thing remains constant: fraudsters don’t take holidays. Enter FinMont and FUGU—two specialists who’ve decided that they might have the upper hand together.

Global payment orchestration platform FinMont has announced a strategic partnership with FUGU, a post-payment fraud prevention firm tailor-made for the travel trade. Their pitch? A combination of FinMont’s orchestration wizardry with FUGU’s watchful fraud-fighting gaze to give travel merchants a fighting chance against lost revenue, rejected transactions, and the ever-persistent fraud rings operating across borders.

A pedigree rooted in aviation

FinMont isn’t just another fintech startup touting disruption. It was launched by the founders of Hahn Air, the German airline known for making ticket distribution its bread and butter. With that background, FinMont understands the peculiarities of aviation commerce omnichannel payments, B2C and B2B streams, and the many shades of settlement headaches airlines endure. Its platform offers a single payments infrastructure that is neatly unified and mercifully less messy than the industry it serves.

The watchdog that doesn’t clock off

For its part, FUGU isn’t content with simply nodding at a card transaction once it clears. Instead, its system monitors after authorisation right up to the moment the passenger boards. Think of it as a fraud prevention terrier, refusing to let go once it’s latched on. The idea is to let travel merchants breathe easier, accept more bookings, and sidestep the revenue sinkhole that comes with chargebacks and fraud losses.

By aligning forces, FinMont and FUGU claim to deliver a toolkit that will:

  • Lift authorisation rates by directing transactions through the most favourable payment service providers.

  • Open the door to more global passengers via multi-currency and FX support.

  • Cut false declines by separating acceptance from verification (a neat trick if it works as advertised).

  • Keep a watchful eye on transactions even after the payment’s gone through.

  • Provide complete visibility via a unified fraud and payments dashboard.

Executives speak up

Suby Valluri, CEO of FinMont, was in buoyant form:

“The FinMont team is delighted to announce this partnership with FUGU and incorporate their post-payment fraud prevention technology into our global ecosystem. This strategic collaboration will further strengthen our proposition to travel merchants, helping them increase acceptance while reducing risk and fraud losses.”

Equally upbeat was Amir Sadras, CEO of FUGU, who declared:

“We are excited to partner with FinMont and bring our post-payment fraud prevention capabilities into their payment ecosystem. Together, we give travel merchants the tools to reduce false declines, optimise payment performance, and deliver better experiences for global passengers.”

Why it matters

Airlines and OTAs are in the unenviable position of walking a tightrope: too lax on fraud, and losses mount; too strict, and legitimate customers are turned away. False declines can be as costly as outright fraud, particularly in an industry where basket values run high. FinMont and FUGU’s alliance is pitched squarely to ease this balancing act.

If it works as promised, the duo could help travel merchants shift from firefighting fraud to proactively building growth. For an industry that’s forever squeezed between wafer-thin margins and demanding passengers, that might be the upgrade they’ve been waiting for.

More on the partnership can be found via the companies’ official sites: FinMont and FUGU.

By Octavia Koo

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