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Conferma, the world’s leading provider of virtual card technology for business travel, has fully removed fax-based virtual card delivery across Europe, following the completion of its final shutdown phase in the UK, France, and Germany. The milestone follows the retirement of fax across 32 European markets earlier this month and marks the completion of Conferma’s European fax retirement programme.
With fax already retired across APAC, the European shutdown marks the next major milestone in Conferma’s global programme to eliminate fax-based delivery and transition customers to secure digital alternatives by the end of 2026.
For hotels and TMCs, the change reduces manual handling, failed delivery, and exception management; for travel buyers and travellers, it supports a smoother, more consistent payment experience.
The change supports Conferma’s wider strategy to modernise the travel payment journey, helping hotels move from manual processes to delivery methods that are more reliable, scalable, and easier to integrate into day-to-day operations.
Hotels across Europe will now receive virtual card details through secure digital methods, including encrypted email, third-party digital vaults, and API-based delivery through Conferma Connect Direct, which enables virtual card information to flow directly into hotel property management systems.
“This initiative is all about improving the traveller experience. Completing our European fax shutdown is a significant product milestone, but more importantly, it’s a practical step towards making travel payments simpler, faster, and more reliable for everyone involved,” said Stuart Davenport, Chief Product Officer at Conferma. “Our focus is on removing unnecessary friction from the payment journey. By replacing legacy processes with more efficient digital alternatives, we’re helping travel buyers, TMCs, and hotel partners work with greater speed, scalability, and confidence.”
Why this matters now
The shift to digital delivery addresses long-standing challenges associated with fax-based processes, including failed transmissions, manual rekeying, and time-consuming follow-ups between hotels and TMCs. When a fax fails, agents are often required to receive and review failure notifications, raise and log a case, and manually redirect the communication through an alternative channel before payment details can be successfully delivered.
By eliminating these inefficiencies, digital delivery reduces manual handling for hotels, minimises exceptions for TMCs, and supports a more consistent payment experience for travellers at check-in.
With fax now retired across both Europe and APAC, Conferma is continuing the next phase of its global transition to digital-first delivery methods and remains on track to ditch fax globally by the end of 2026.
Hotels that haven’t yet updated their communication preferences should register their property at www.confermaconnect.com to ensure virtual card details continue to be delivered without interruption.
“This is part of a broader product strategy to make travel payments as simple and seamless as possible,” added Stuart. “Completing the European shutdown is an important step, and we’ll continue to focus on delivering technology and working with our hotel partners to remove complexity, support scalability, and improve the experience for our customers and partners.”
European markets included in the fax retirement programme:
Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
About Conferma
Headquartered in Manchester, UK, Conferma is the global leader in virtual payments, connecting businesses, issuers, and suppliers to streamline and secure transactions. Its technology underpins virtual card issuance for banks, travel management companies, and enterprises worldwide. For more information, visit www.conferma.com
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