Trip.com transforms to capture opportunities from travel boom
Published: Feb 2026
Best Treasury Transformation Project
Highly Commended Winner
Trip.com Group Ltd
Photo of Will Ma, HSBC, Karen Wang and Cheng Hui Lin, Trip.com Group Ltd and Winnie Chen, Bank of America.
Karen Wang
Treasury Director
Xiao Lu Guo
Senior Treasury Manager
Cheng Hui Lin
Senior Treasury Analyst
Founded in 1999, Trip.com Group Limited is a multinational travel agency headquartered in Shanghai, China. It is one of the largest online travel service providers in the world.
in partnership with
The challenge
Travel services grew post-pandemic and Trip.com’s transaction volumes have surged. The company also added new international destinations which required increased cross-currency transactions to support a growing vendor base.
Until recently, its regional treasury centre in Singapore had made use of traditional wires to make international payments. The method was manual and costly, and the need for FX transactions exposed the firm to significant currency risks.
Trip.com acknowledged the need to strengthen its vendor relations to continue offering its customers a seamless online travel booking experience at affordable prices. Payments efficiency was identified as a key differentiator.
Trip.com sought an integrated treasury management solution that incorporates automated funding mechanisms to speed up vendor payments.
The company faced mounting challenges, including rising operating cost, shifting customer demographics and intensifying competition. Its legacy treasury processes were manual and inefficient. FX management was another area it wanted to modernise to offer more competitive pricing and sharpen its competitive edge. There was a pressing need to centralise, automate and digitise its treasury processes as it expanded.
TripLink, a holding subsidiary of Trip.com Group, receives funds from online travel agents (OTAs) whenever they top up their TripLink Virtual Card. The TripLink Virtual Card facilitates travel-related payments by OTAs to travel service providers. As such, TripLink needed multicurrency virtual accounts (MCVAs) for collections in various currencies in Singapore. The process involved partially matching the transaction credit account with the bank-maintained virtual account listing.
The solution
Trip.com worked with its bank partners to overhaul its international payments approach, as part of its treasury transformation initiative.
It established non-resident accounts (NRAs) to enable local payments via a combination of real-time payments (RTP), automated clearing house (ACH) and real-time gross settlement (RTGS) capabilities in overseas markets, including the US, the UK, Luxembourg, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. This allows the company to pay vendors via local payment rails, replacing its traditional approach using wires. These NRA accounts tap into funds from Trip.com’s cross-border multi-currency cash pool header in Singapore that leverages virtual accounts to facilitate the segregation of payment and collection by lines of business.
Host-to-host connectivity established between Trip.com’s global TMS and HSBC further automates data flows for payments. In Hong Kong and Singapore, Trip.com rolled out RTP via PayMe and Paynow, respectively. In Japan, the adoption of Zengin More Time RTP is complemented by a payment pre-validation feature to verify beneficiary information prior to processing of payments. This alleviates the need for manual verification (usually requires formatting to Japanese language katakana) at Trip.com’s end, improving payment efficiency and reducing payment returns.
The company also implemented an integrated treasury management solution across its nine markets, Hong Kong (pilot), Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Japan and Australia in APAC with Bank of America.
Standard Chartered Bank partnered with TripLink with MCVA, a value-added service that helps to easily identify the source or purpose of payments by allowing each payor to use a different virtual account reference number for its receivables. Using a VA structure, TripLink can seamlessly facilitate collections into its main bank account whilst ensuring receipt of essential payor information to facilitate reconciliation of proceeds against outstanding receivables.
Best practice and innovation
This marks a significant step in Trip.com’s broader treasury transformation efforts to build out an integrated treasury function that prioritises centralisation to enable improved visibility and controls. By replacing legacy processes with real-time solutions powered by host-to-host and APIs, Trip.com is equipping its treasury with scalable and future‑proof solutions to sustain greater transaction volumes while continuing to deliver an enhanced travel experience for its customers.
Key benefits
Cost savings.
Headcount savings.
Number of banking partners/bank accounts reduced.
Process efficiencies.
Return on investment.
Increased automation.
Risk mitigated.
Improved visibility.
Errors reduced.
Manual intervention reduced.
Increased system connectivity
Future-proof solution.
Improved key performance indicator (KPI) metrics.
For the treasury team at Trip.com, the task of implementing this integrated solution across nine markets, including several restricted markets, was daunting to say the least. With meticulous planning and guidance from Bank of America, the Hong Kong pilot went without a hitch. It was able to apply learnings from the pilot and proceed smoothly with the rest of the project according to its internal timeline with no impact to its operations and customers.
Guo Lin
Head of Global Payments Solutions for China, Bank of America
The rapid growth of e-commerce presented both opportunities and operational challenges for online travel agency, Trip.com. To address these, the company partnered with Bank of America to implement an integrated treasury management solution across its nine Asia Pacific markets. This solution included structured reference accounts, automated sweeps and API integration, enabling real-time fund visibility and streamlined treasury operations. As a result, Trip.com significantly improved its operational efficiency and user experience. The enhanced treasury infrastructure not only supported the company’s day-to-day financial management but also contributed to its broader revenue growth and strategic agility in a competitive digital landscape.
in partnership with
Will Ma
Head of Global Corporates and International Mid-Market Sales, China, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC China
Heartiest congratulations to Trip.com – this is an outstanding recognition that speak volumes to the impact of their treasury transformation. The complex transformation not only helps Trip.com build a more agile treasury but also deliver broader positive impacts that benefit other ecosystem players. Faster payments improve cash cycles for vendors, strengthening overall relationships, reducing costs and enhancing product innovation to better compete in today’s competitive online travel landscape. We stand proud to have supported their transformation journey, equipping them with the tools and capacity to support growing transaction volumes, and deliver a consistent, superior customer experience.
in partnership with
The Adam Smith Awards Asia are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards-asia
