Merchant Payment Services

Energia Group is seeking to procure Merchant Payment services (Merchant Services), for the processing of customer card payments within both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.

Energia wishes to offer their customers an efficient payment processing experience using a streamlined uninterrupted process for making card payments. Energia currently operates a payment service process, using their own Payment Service Provider, which involves the transfer of funds paid by their customers via debit and credit bank cards, to a third-party processing platform owned by the Supplier.

The Supplier must be able to facilitate the transaction process by attaining and receipting information from the customer, receive authorisation from the bank approving the funds transaction, collecting the funds from the bank and then transferring the payment to Energia.

The Supplier will be required to ensure that the transaction funds are approved by the customer's bank and acceptance of the combined settlement of card funding transactions (authorisation process).

As a minimum, Energia will require the suppliers processing platform to transfer debit and credit cards from Visa, Mastercard and Electron. All platforms must be Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ (settlement process).

Energia requires a platform that will accommodate their customers choice of payment card options and differing currencies. The platform must be available to process payments made by customers 24x7x365.

Energia also require an online portal for the receipt of daily transaction information and reconciliation reports.

For ongoing management information, Energia will require the Supplier to be able to populate management information containing monthly and quarterly performance metrics, scheme updates, compliance updates, new / upcoming solutions and changes within the industry.

The provision of Merchant Payment Services is expected to commence in September 2025, although the Supplier will be expected to work with Energia Group to facilitate the implementation of the Merchant Payment Service prior to commencement.