TMU Management and actuary.aero announced a strategic collaboration that changes how acquiring banks manage counterparty credit risk across deferred delivery merchant portfolios using real-time exposure intelligence.

For years, acquirer risk frameworks in deferred delivery sectors have been built around approximation. Exposure has often been inferred rather than observed, controls have been static rather than adaptive, and reserves have been applied broadly due to limited real-time portfolio visibility. The result has been conservative capital treatment, constrained merchant growth, and persistent friction between risk, commercial and underwriting teams.

By combining portfolio-level Acquirer Chargeback Insurance with real-time, transaction-level exposure intelligence, the partnership enables acquiring banks to manage deferred delivery risk proactively rather than retrospectively. Deferred delivery portfolios can be insured while retaining merchant-level control, allowing individual merchants to be added or removed as exposure profiles change.

Static, assumption-based reserves can be replaced where appropriate, or supported alongside existing controls, depending on an acquirer's risk strategy. In all cases, decisions are informed by live exposure data rather than historical averages or sector generalisations.

Because exposure data is shared continuously and assessed at granular transaction level, insurers are not encountering risk for the first time at the point of claim. Portfolio behaviour, exposure build-up and risk dynamics are understood in advance, supporting clearer underwriting, faster claims assessment and fewer contested outcomes.

The collaboration is immediately applicable to travel, where deferred delivery exposure is largest and most complex, and extends naturally to other deferred delivery verticals including ticketing, events and prepaid leisure.

"This partnership reflects a fundamental shift in how deferred delivery risk can be managed," said Sami Doyle, at TMU Management. "Acquirers no longer need to rely on static controls simply because visibility is limited. Portfolio-level insurance, informed by live exposure intelligence, allows risk to be transferred and governed with far greater precision."