TMU Management and actuary.aero have joined forces to introduce a new solution for acquiring banks, offering real-time exposure intelligence paired with portfolio-level insurance for deferred delivery merchant portfolios.

By addressing the long-standing challenge in acquirer risk management—relying on approximated, post-event exposure data instead of current transaction-level insights—the partnership aims to provide more accurate and timely information. In sectors like travel, where payments are collected before services are delivered, exposure risks can escalate significantly before traditional monitoring systems detect them, leading to difficulties in capital allocation, merchant evaluation, and chargeback reserve management.

Collaboration details and features

The partnership integrates TMU Management’s Acquirer Chargeback Insurance with actuary.aero’s transaction-level exposure intelligence platform. This combination allows acquiring banks to continuously track deferred delivery portfolios, adjusting the risk profiles of individual merchants as their situations change, rather than applying fixed reserve requirements across entire groups.

This approach enables a more flexible and dynamic reserve management strategy based on real-time data analysis. By basing decisions on live exposure information, it enhances alignment between acquirers and insurers, ensuring continuous sharing and detailed assessment of portfolio behavior before any claims arise. This supports clearer underwriting terms, faster claim processing, and reduced disputes.

According to Sami Doyle from TMU Management, the new model allows for more precise risk management compared to conventional static controls. Livia Vité from actuary.aero highlighted that the main hurdle in managing deferred delivery risks lies in visibility issues, stating that their collaboration translates complex transaction data into a shared real-time view of exposure.

Scope and application

The initial focus is on the travel sector, where deferred delivery risks are both most intricate and occur at scale. The solution is also applicable to ticketing, event management, and prepaid leisure services, all of which involve long lead times between payment collection and service fulfillment, thereby increasing potential exposure for acquiring banks in cases of merchant failure or disruption.