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Merchant Acquiring Services

London Borough of Brent

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

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11 Sep 2026 at 17:34

UK5 - Transparency Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The London Borough of Brent is procuring merchant acquiring services to enable residents and customers to pay the council by debit and credit card. The service supports card payments for council services through online, telephone and other customer access channels, and is intended to keep the payment journey accessible, user-friendly and straightforward. It is a financial transaction processing and clearing-house service, delivered for the council in Brent, London. The requirement supports payment collection across several council departments and connects with the council’s financial and customer-facing systems. Suppliers operating payment acquiring services, card transaction processing and related support would be relevant, particularly those able to serve a local authority with substantial and business-critical payment activity.

The procurement has reached the award stage and the tender is complete. Brent used a direct award to BARCLAYS BANK UK PLC, under a single completed lot, with the award recorded as pending signature. The award date is 11 September 2026 and the planned contract period is 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2028. The awarded value is £900,000 excluding VAT, or £1,080,000 including VAT. The council justified the direct award on technical and operational grounds: changing supplier before the existing contract expires would require complex transitions across several financial systems and could disrupt income collection. The contract is above the relevant threshold. A signature milestone was scheduled for 30 September 2026.

This procurement indicates sustained demand from Brent for a merchant acquiring partner able to process high volumes of debit and credit card payments for residents and customers. A credible competitor for a future requirement would need proven local-authority or similarly complex public-sector acquiring experience, robust transaction processing and clearing-house capability, and the capacity to support online, telephone and other customer payment channels. It would also need to integrate with multiple financial and customer-facing systems, work across departments with differing requirements, and manage a controlled transition without interrupting payment collection. Strong technical delivery, operational resilience, customer accessibility and practical support for system change would be important differentiators. Suppliers should be able to demonstrate that their platform and implementation team can handle a business-critical council-wide service.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

Merchant Acquiring Services

Notice Description

Merchant Acquiring is an essential contract from a financial perspective as it is necessary to enable residents and customers to pay the council by debit and credit card, over PS100m a year is collected by the council using this contract. This service is a key part of the council's support systems, and essential for the council to be able to collect payments by card as people expect in 2026. The contract helps enable the goals set out in the Customer Access Strategy to strive to make the online customer journey accessible, user-friendly and straightforward, as customers expect to be able to pay for services online using their cards.

Procurement Information

This is a complex contract to re-procure, involving both a complex, technical procurement, and multiple council departments with differing specifications. If awarded to a different supplier then there is significant work to transition several of the council's financial systems to use the new supplier which would not be possible for technical and operational reasons before the existing contract expires. The Council cannot risk the disruption to this service as this would impact income collection via e-commerce, online or telephone payments from residents and customers. Therefore, Officers intend to use this time in an effective way to plan a new procurement exercise and procure compliantly a suitably experienced supplier to deliver and support the transition to a possible new supplier of merchant acquiring services.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f8a4
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/086649-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK5 - Transparency Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

66 - Financial and insurance services

CPV Codes

66172000 - Financial transaction processing and clearing-house services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£900,000 £500K-£1M
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
11 Sep 20264 days ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
1 Oct 2026 - 31 Mar 2028 1-2 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Pending
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
London Borough of Brent
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
WEMBLEY
Postcode
HA9 0FJ
Postcode Area
Harrow
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI7 Outer London - West and North West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI72 Brent
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Brent
Electoral Ward
Wembley Park
Westminster Constituency
Brent West

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

Barclays Bank PLC

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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