Official UK procurement notice
Merchant Acquirer Services · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Transport for Greater Manchester (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionTfGM has a range of strategic priorities that impact on the need for merchant acquirer services, including 'PAYGO' contactless payments on Metrolink trams, cycle hire and bus reform. Given the criticality of these projects, their associated programmes and project timeframes, and due to the very close interaction of the payment processing / merchant acquirer services with other systems operated by TfGM, a change in supplier at this point in the programmes mentioned above (amongst others) would add significant risk to the continued provision of payment solutions and services across TfGM, taking into account the complexity of the requirements and the integration required. Most significantly, the contactless payments solution would require significant rework and regression testing for the processing of transit payments. Payment processing for transit is far more inherently complex than for other payment channels, and suppliers of the other systems that need to interact with the payment processing /merchant acquirer services have their own specifications to meet the card schemes requirements for transit.
It is highly likely that any new supplier of payment processing / merchant acquirer services would be required to re-accredit the contactless scheme. This end-to-end process would take a period of time and require significant interaction with other suppliers in the payments process, and adds significant risk of disruption to existing customer facing services on TfGM's Metrolink and Drivesafe services.
Appointing a new supplier would also provide challenges with respect to 'waivers' that have previously been agreed between the card schemes and the current supplier. Again, this would require significant time to ensure the same waivers would remain in place, and would add risk to the timescales associated with the franchised bus network, as well as maintaining provision on the existing Metrolink payment schemes. It is therefore the intention of TfGM to progress these programmes to move to an operational environment, gather data on customer card payments, and engage with the market once the schemes are in operation.
CPV: Financial transaction processing and clearing-house services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Merchant Acquirer Services associated with card payments
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 12 Aug 2021, 12:35 BST
- Last source update
- 12 Aug 2021, 12:35 BST
- FTS notice number
2021/S 000-019583- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-02d3eeFind a Tender
- Why no open competition
- The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive
- Published justification
TfGM is making an award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition on Find a Tender Service as a change of contractor-
(i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as requirements of interchangeability or interoperability with existing equipment, software, services or installations procured under the initial procurement; and
(ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the utility.
Explanation:
TfGM has a range of strategic priorities that impact on the need for merchant acquirer services, including 'PAYGO' contactless payments on Metrolink trams, cycle hire and bus reform. Given the criticality of these projects, their associated programmes and project timeframes, and due to the very close interaction of the payment processing / merchant acquirer services with other systems operated by TfGM, a change in supplier at this point in the programmes mentioned above (amongst others) would add significant risk to the continued provision of payment solutions and services across TfGM, taking into account the complexity of the requirements and the integration required. Most significantly, the contactless payments solution would require significant rework and regression testing for the processing of transit payments. Payment processing for transit is far more inherently complex than for other payment channels, and suppliers of the other systems that need to interact with the payment processing /merchant acquirer services have their own specifications to meet the card schemes requirements for transit.
It is highly likely that any new supplier of payment processing / merchant acquirer services would be required to re-accredit the contactless scheme. This end-to-end process would take a period of time and require significant interaction with other suppliers in the payments process, and adds significant risk of disruption to existing customer facing services on TfGM's Metrolink and Drivesafe services.
Appointing a new supplier would also provide challenges with respect to 'waivers' that have previously been agreed between the card schemes and the current supplier. Again, this would require significant time to ensure the same waivers would remain in place, and would add risk to the timescales associated with the franchised bus network, as well as maintaining provision on the existing Metrolink payment schemes. It is therefore the intention of TfGM to progress these programmes to move to an operational environment, gather data on customer card payments, and engage with the market once the schemes are in operation.
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barclays Bank PLC | — | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 019583-2021-1 · Barclays Bank PLC
- Signed
- 22 Jul 2021
- Value
- —
- Status
- active
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Lot | Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Acquirer Services associated with card payments | — | — | — | £550,000 – £1,000,000 |
| Whole notice | — | — | — | £550,000 – £1,000,000 |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Barclays Bank PlcAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.