As the payment and travel industries evolve, it is essential for airlines, travel agencies, system providers, acquirers, processors and credit card companies to work together to identify ways we can impact the industry.

The ARC Payments Forum provides a venue for payment experts to collaborate on initiatives that will benefit the travel industry as a whole. This includes initiatives like chargeback resolution, changes to credit card company authorization and processing requirements, the rollout of fraud prevention tools, and the implementation of new and innovative payment initiatives. This work enables agencies, airlines and other organizations to provide the best possible customer experience while managing risk and minimizing cost.

The ARC Payments Forum (formerly named the Credit Card Working Group) was created in 2015 following card association changes that inadvertently impacted the processing of airline transactions initiated through travel agents. Because these changes had a sweeping impact on the industry, ARC created a working group to provide a forum for problem-solving, communication and collaboration related to payment processing.

Since 2015, there have been many other changes to payments in our industry, and ARC continues to host the ARC Payments Forum to continually drive new solutions and enhance communication surrounding the latest payment updates. The forum includes information about industry strategic initiatives — including essential updates from various card brands, including Visa, Mastercard and Discover. Unlike some other industry meetings, the particular focus of the ARC Payments Forum is to drive the actual changes required by all parties to support payments into the future, and to advocate on behalf of the industry to drive impactful initiatives.

The fourth annual ARC Payments Forum will take place June 13-14, 2018, in Washington, D.C. Agency payment experts interested in participating are encouraged to reach out to ARC’s director of payments, Jennifer Watkins at jwatkins@arccorp.com.