Credit Card Processing Services

The Vendor is required to provide financial institutions and merchant service providers to furnish Credit Card Processing Services, including—but not limited to—merchant acquiring, payment gateway services, point-of-sale (POS) solutions, online and recurring payment capabilities, EMV-compliant equipment, chargeback management, reporting tools, customer service support, and related financial technology enhancements.
- These environments may include in-person transactions, online portals, mobile applications, utility or fee payments, recurring or automatic billing, and any additional platforms requiring compliant electronic payment acceptance.
- Customers may pay these fees using cash, credit cards, debit cards, or through established accounts with the Authority.
- Deposit payments received into the designated agency bank account(s) via Automated Clearing House (ACH).
- Shall process, at a minimum, American Express, Visa, MasterCard and Discover.
- System must be capable of processing transactions directly with Visa, MasterCard, and Discover through their respective settlement networks, and must process American Express transactions directly with American Express.
- This structure must accommodate location, transaction type, and reporting needs across all divisions accepting payments. 
- The Authority currently maintains two merchant IDs.
- shall establish a flexible merchant identification framework that supports multiple merchant IDs or comparable identifiers for the Authority, as determined in consultation with the Authority.
- The payment processing system shall provide:
•    Authorization response times consistent with industry standards (generally under 3 seconds for card not-present transactions and under 10 seconds for EMV/contactless transactions).
•    System availability of 99.9% uptime, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
•    Scheduled maintenance communicated in advance to the Authority, with minimal disruption to service.
- Must support customers making multiple transactions per day across card types, including recurring and installment payments.
- A percentage-based fee applied to credit card and debit card transactions. 
- The gateway must clearly distinguish between card types and apply the appropriate fee structure accordingly. 
- All service fees must comply with applicable brand rules, state and federal regulations, and must be disclosed to customers prior to authorization. 
- The Authority does not currently accept eCheck payments.

- Contract Period/Term: 3 years
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: December 19, 2025