LCC Merchant Acquiring and Associated Services

Lincolnshire County Council requires a merchant acquiring facility to work alongside a regulated payment services provider to process card payments on its behalf. The payment services provider will arrange authorisation from the customer’s card issuer or bank and then collect those funds and pay them to the Council. The payment acceptance process will securely receive payments via cards, digital wallets, payment gateways and online platforms. The provider will process transactions through card issuers like Visa or Mastercard, checks fund availability, transfers payments to the Council, and ensure compliance with Payment Card Industry and Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). The requirement also includes the provision of sale (POS) terminals for face-to-face and unattended payment transactions. Within the Council’s structure there are a number of service areas where card payment acceptance processing is required. The Council has identified a number of dependencies with other providers that would need to be taken account of as part of any implementation process. The Contract is anticipated to run for a period of 4 years, commencing 1st April 2027 and expiring 31st March 2031. There will be an option for the Council to extend the Contract by a period or periods of up to 24 months to ultimately expire 31st March 2033.