Banking services

Tender description

The University of Southampton has a requirement for the provision of Corporate Banking and Merchant Card services. The University requires a banking service which will include the provision and maintenance of bank accounts, income handling, a full range of payment processing options and other services associated with higher education banking arrangements, including an electronic banking platform for payment initiation and balance/transaction reporting. The University also requires the provision of Merchant Card services to support a full range of card payment options through a variety of payment solutions. The University is seeking to develop efficient and cost-effective banking arrangements which will be capable of meeting future market and technological changes, and which will meet, and often exceed, user expectations. The University of Southampton has a requirement for the provision of Corporate Banking and Merchant Card services. The University requires a banking service which will include the provision and maintenance of bank accounts, income handling (including cash and cheques), a full range of payment processing options (including electronic bank transfer, both domestic and international, BACS and direct debit) and other services associated with higher education banking arrangements, including an electronic banking platform for payment initiation and balance/transaction reporting. The University also requires the provision of Merchant Card services to support a full range of card payment options (to include virtual terminal payments, recurring card payments, web payments, DCC payments) through a variety of payment solutions (including contactless, chip and pin, wireless and mobile). Merchant Card services provision would need to support the University’s PCI DSS requirements and offer a suitable management information system for reporting purposes. The University is conducting this procurement using the open procedure in accordance with the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015) for the purpose of procuring the services described in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document set. The estimated annual value of this requirement is in the region of GBP 460 000. The total estimated value excluding VAT, is the overall potential value of the contract taking into account the option to extend up to an additional 2 years. Total estimated value excluding VAT GBP 2 760 000. The University proposes to enter into a contract for a maximum period of 6 years. This will comprise of an initial contract period of 4 years with an option to extend by a further 2 x 12 month periods subject to satisfactory performance and at the discretion of the University. It is not envisaged that there will be any TUPE implications arising from this requirement.