The IT behind running an ATOL escrow account should not be an additional mountain to climb
If you have been tasked by the CAA to put an escrow account in place, your main challenge is likely to be ensuring that your business has adequate cash flow to sustain the requirement to fund the account with up to 70% of cash that your ATOL customers have paid to you. The good news […]
ATOL Reform – Client money segregation is not simple
The CAA’s request for further information as it continues with its consideration of ATOL Reform makes a number of references to ‘simple client account segregation’. But is any form of client money segregation simple, whether presided over by a professional trustee or otherwise? Having had over ten years’ experience in designing and running trust, client […]
ATOL Escrow Accounts – an incremental approach
Decisions about ATOL reform are still under deliberation; and specifics like the lead time into any mandatory segregation and the detail of the segregation options are still a long way off. That leaves many ATOL holders unable to plan or forecast the future for their businesses. Exacerbating that uncertainty is the possibility that fundamental change […]
Client money segregation in the travel industry – better late than never.
Segregation of client money is one of the central tenets of the UK’s Regulatory framework for licensed professionals. Solicitors, investment agents and advisors, accountants, architects, letting agents, insurance brokers and insolvency practitioners are all subject to strict codes and regulations about how client money should be handled and segregated. How then, did the travel profession […]
ATOL Reform – Request for Further Information
In January 2023, the Civil Aviation Authority published a request for further information, following responses received following its initial consultation which began in June 2021. Here follows a note summarising the main points of that document:- Respondents reported concerns about the availability and coverage of financial products for the entirety of the travel industry, the […]
Helping you to run a trust account
It can be daunting to embark on implementing a travel trust account as the means of providing financial protection for consumer’s payments for travel services. Having access to standard solutions to assist with putting together the ingredients to make up your chosen trust structure can ease that burden. Trust accounts have historically been viewed by […]
Covid Pandemic impacts on demand for travel trusts for merchant facilities
The demand for travel trusts for merchant facilities has seen a significant upturn as the pandemic progresses and continues its negative impact across the travel industry – as consumers recoup their losses via card issuers. Chargebacks have inevitably resulted when delays ensue in consumers receiving refunds for holidays cancelled owing to Government restrictions and border […]
The Travel Agent Trust Account – Your flexible friend
The internet age has brought with it an almost limitless flexibility in the way that travel agents can structure the sale of travel arrangements to suit each pocket, whim and preference. It is really only the travel agent trust account that has the ability to morph seamlessly to cover this range of different types of […]
Seven good reasons why travel trust accounts should be favoured
We are professional trustees to travel. Our decades of experience and knowledge of the travel industry (and specifically the experience we have gained in running travel specific trust accounts) enable us to identify the pitfalls and benefits of trust accounts as a means of providing financial protection. Since the implementation of the Package Travel and […]
Travel Trust Accounts versus Travel Bonding
Trust Accounts are the ‘new black’ for the travel industry, there’s no denying it. There’s increasing talk of the government withdrawing their backing of the Air Travel Trust and if that becomes the case, trust accounts have to be the fall-back position. But it’s not surprising really, because trust accounts have so much going for […]
