Mastercard is to launch an expense management system early in 2014, aimed at travel managers and corporate clients.
Mastercard claims its Travel Controller produce will prevent ‘leakage’ of expenditure while ensuring compliance with travel policy. The company said that the system can match 100 per cent of central travel expenses to booking data and allows companies to allocate charges to the appropriate cost centres.
Custom virtual accounts are created for each transaction by creating a unique number. Travel Controller then ensures the information is available on both the original transaction as well as on credit and on refunds, something it said was currently difficult to manage on a typical “lodge” card held centrally by a TMC or company.
“Typically, travel and entertainment is the second largest controllable expense after salaries and benefits, and yet companies worldwide are overwhelmed with huge amounts of travel spend data requiring expense reconciliation,” said Richard Crum (pictured), Mastercard’s group head for travel and entertainment, global commercial products and solutions.
“With minimal upfront investment and systems integration, Travel Controller gives companies the opportunity to remedy this pain point."
Travel Controller is currently being piloted with banks, TMCs and corporate customers until the end of the year. Mastercard plans to make it commercially available in early 2014.