Nuvei and WEX Team on Virtual Cards for Travel Merchants

Nuvei says it is offering its merchants a chance to tap into WEX’s virtual card technology.

With this partnership, travel merchants within Nuvei’s network can see improved cash flows, stronger liquidity, reduced credit dependency and increased payments transparency, the companies announced Tuesday (Jan. 27).

“Our partnership with WEX further strengthens Nuvei’s position as the payments infrastructure partner of choice for the travel industry,” said Phil Fayer, Nuvei’s CEO and chair. “Together we’re helping travel businesses improve cash flow, reduce costs, and simplify how they pay suppliers around the world.”

According to a news release, the integration lets travel merchants and marketplaces — including online travel agencies, airlines and hospitality brands — manage multiple supplier relationships more efficiently through secure virtual card payments.

With virtual cards, businesses can streamline supplier payments by automating issuance and adding built-in controls, offering merchants a faster and more secure way to move funds, the news release added.

“With credit tightening across global markets, access to working capital is becoming an increasing challenge for travel merchants,” the companies said.

This Nuvei/WEX collaboration, they added, lets merchants to supplier payments directly from incoming settlement flows, cutting down on dependency on credit lines because liquidity flows from their own receivables.

“Virtual cards have become a great tool for travel agencies managing complex supplier networks,” said Jason Hancock, managing director of global travel at WEX. “By combining WEX’s global virtual card infrastructure and travel payment expertise with Nuvei’s global acquiring network, we’re enabling agencies and suppliers to move funds faster and with greater confidence, helping to strengthen efficiency and trust across the travel payments ecosystem.”

As covered here last year, a virtual card is a digital payment method with a unique card number, expiration date and security code that protects sensitive financial information and helps businesses manage expenses for spending, supplier payments and projects.

“Firms can now issue digital payment instruments embedded with rebate programs that accrue cash back on every eligible transaction,” PYMNTS wrote in November. “Where there was once a cost of doing business, now there’s a credit line and, in some cases, a six- or seven-figure revenue stream.”

Meanwhile, the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Why 2025 Could Be the Year of the Virtual Card” found strong levels of interest in virtual cards among financial leaders, even though fewer have adopted them. Close to 80% chief financial officers at middle-market companies said they are “highly interested” in accepting virtual cards, even as fewer than half of companies around the world have implemented them.