IFAP and the IATA financial review: what to submit and when

The IATA financial review begins when IATA sends a request for financial statements to the agency's financial assessment contact, with the deadline attached. That person uploads the statements and completes the self-assessment form in IFAP, the IATA Financial Assessment Portal 1. The deadline itself is not the same everywhere, so read the request carefully.

Who receives the request and who can use IFAP

The request goes to the financial assessment contact of the agency, together with the applicable deadline information 1. Only the person set up as the Financial Assessment Contact has access to IFAP 1. If that person has left or the role was never updated, nobody else can submit, so check the Company information on the IATA Customer Portal to see who is currently registered 1.

Once the request has arrived, IFAP can be reached in three ways 1:

• the link in the email request;
• the IFAP Service on the IATA Customer Portal;
• the Notification Bell on the IATA Customer Portal.

How often the review happens

Frequency depends on the type of agent 2:

• A Standard Agent with Cash Facility is asked for financial statements at least once a year, unless the agent has opted out of the review under section 5.4.6 of Resolution 812 2.
• A Multi-Country Agent is reviewed quarterly under the Multi-Country Assessment Framework 2.
• A Euro-Zone Agent is reviewed once a year under the Euro-Zone Financial Criteria 2.
• An agent with an Amount at Risk above USD 5 Million can also face additional ad-hoc reviews 2.

IATA may also waive an annual assessment where it is certain the outcome will not change the agent's status. Two cases are named: the Financial Security already equals the Remittance Holding Capacity, or the agent was recently assessed for cause and nothing relevant has changed 3.

The deadline and what you upload

The timelines and criteria follow the Local Financial Criteria of your market, or the Multi-Country or Euro-Zone criteria for those agent types 2. Some examples from Travel Agent's Handbook (TAH), Edition 46:

• One set of criteria requires accounts no later than 9 months after each financial year end 8.
• The Germany criteria set a nine-month deadline after year end for the Data Collection Sheet 7.
• The financial assessment framework for a head entity and for multi-country accreditations refers to six months from the financial year-end 46.

Because these differ, confirm which one applies to you rather than assuming.

In terms of content, the request covers the financial statements and the self-assessment form in IFAP 1. Where the framework with the six-month rule applies, the package is 46: