Administrators for collapsed Globespan have asked its credit card transactions firm E-Clear to put £35m of owed money into a joint bank account.

The move comes after PricewaterhouseCoopers claimed E-Clear had been stalling payments owed to Globespan from credit card customers for months.

There is also confusion surrounding the business interests of Greek travel industry entrepreneur Elias Elia, chief executive of E-Clear, following the collapse of his travel agency Allbury Travel over the weekend.

Filings at Companies House show that Allbury is controlled through a British Virgin Islands-registered company owned by Elias Elia. It is also believed to have used E-Clear to process credit card payments.

Globespan’s difficulty in accessing money is seen as key to its collapse.

E-Clear was the company that took ticket bookings through debit and credit cards for Globespan. But it withheld much of the money as insurance against the possibility of Globespan’s collapse.

London-based E-Clear faces mounting pressure from the Scottish government for an investigation by Whitehall regulators into the collapse of Globespan, Scotland’s largest airline.

The company has issued a statement saying: “E-clear is committed to co-operating with the administrators of Flyglobespan Group and our legal teams are working closely to resolve the issues,” the statement said.

“At this stage we are unable to comment about the requested funds from PwC due to legal reasons.”

Joint administrator Bruce Cartwright has suggested up to £35m is owed by E-Clear, which is at least double the figure needed to cover any potential refunds to customers whose flights never took off.

He said that placing E-Clear’s owed money in a joint account would simplify the administration process.

Mr Cartwright said: “We believe our proposal provides a commercial and transparent approach and will help to address the concerns of Globespan creditors.