Case Study: Trenitalia c2c automates £1m+ customer refunds during COVID-19 lockdown with Bottomline PTX Payouts

Efficiently managing over £1m of customer refunds during COVID-19 lock-down

Trenitalia c2c, an award‑winning UK train operator and long‑term user of Bottomline’s PTX for Bacs payments, faced a surge in season‑ticket refund requests during the COVID‑19 lockdown. Many refunds had to be issued by cheque, a process that required office printing on special paper and physical signatures from senior finance staff—an impractical and risky workflow while staff were remote.

c2c implemented PTX Payout to replace printed cheques, using a branded online form to collect bank details, automated account verification, and the existing PTX authorisation workflows to create daily batch payments. The cloud solution went live in about a month, processed over 1,400 claims (more than £1m) with a 700% volume increase in the first 30 days, reduced manual effort and fraud risk, and improved the customer refund experience.

Trenitalia c2c

Dave Markwell

Finance Systems Administrator