GovWire

The agreement (RM3702) has been designed to help government and public sector organisations access the equipment and services they need to accept payments by debit and credit cards and other payment methods.

Merchant acquiring services and equipment can help organisations increase the speed and efficiency of payment processing and reduce costs. They also allow citizens to make online payments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Benefits of the new agreement include:

• improved pricing - reduced rates for processing payments and the hire of chip and pin terminals, and lower set-up costs and management fees
• additional discounts for all participating organisations through the aggregation of spend and transaction volumes
• operational efficiencies and enhanced business processes eg less cash and cheque handling and fewer bank charges
• complements and supports the Government Digital Service payment platform.

The acquirer is the bank or financial institution that processes card payments on behalf of the merchant who is the organisation providing the goods or services. The agreement provides access to services and equipment such as:

• payment gateway services to enable payments to be made online or by telephone
• equipment such as payment terminals with chip and pin functionality

If your organisation needs to be able to take payment from citizens you can find out more about the new agreement by visiting the dedicated web page

If you would like advice on the latest innovative payment solutions to best meet your specific needs, please get in touch with our category experts:

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