An industry working group, the ADM User Group (ADMUG) comprised of over 300 Airlines, Travel Agents and Associations, GDSs, and experts from ATPCO, ARC and IATA, has been working together since 2016 in order to identify areas of improvement in the ticketing distribution chain where it would ultimately result in the reduction of Agency Debit Memos (ADM). Based on the findings, one of the major factors causing 11%* of the global ADM value is related to ADMs resulting from Credit Card Chargebacks.
In September 2018 an interview was published on Airlines with the credit card experts from IATA and ARC (https://airlines.iata.org/analysis/preventing-credit-card-fraud-can-reduce-chargeback-adms) explaining how ADMs related to chargebacks could be reduced through preventing credit card fraud.
In order to support the industry to strengthen their position in preventing financial losses from Chargebacks, the ADMUG created a Credit Card Chargeback Guideline that provides explanations to Agents and Airlines about the unique business process in BSP Credit Card sales and how the industry can gather the correct documentation at time of payment, employing fraud prevention and cardholder authentication technologies, as well as working with each other to prevent and fight fraud and Chargebacks instead of directly passing on costs.
After the first version was released in 2017, the ADMUG received very positive feedback from the industry. This year the ADMUG has worked together with payment experts from the Payment Method Working Group (PMWG) to enhance and update the guidelines, ensuring that it remains a relevant and useful document. Travel Agents and Airlines are encouraged to refer to this document.
*The percentage is based on those ADMs that could be identified with an ADM Standard Reason.”
