What's new at GSA SmartPay

Center for Charge Card Innovation

The Center for Charge Card Innovation was designed to identify, develop, test and offer, through the GSA SmartPay 2 master contract, new products and services to meet evolving agency needs.  It serves as a leader in identifying, developing, and piloting all Federal charge card pilot programs. As new products and services are introduced in the industry, the Center for Charge Card Innovation will be the launching pad for experimenting with these products and services to ensure high quality and successful results. If you or your agency would like to share an innovative idea, please contact our office through the feedback form on the website.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Planned Future Enhancements to the GSA SmartPay Program include:

  • Grants Funding Solution
  • GSA SmartPay Point-of-Sale Discount Program
  • Standard Bank Data Interface
  • State and Local Government Cards
  • Pre-Configured Emergency Cards
  • Declining Balance Cards

 

GSA SmartPay 2

The GSA SmartPay program office began planning for the follow-on charge card program, referred to as GSA SmartPay 2 or SP2, by initiating extensive outreach efforts to identify where program improvements could be made. These efforts included interviews of Government program participants and stakeholders, panel discussions, focus groups, surveys, and extensive industry interaction including a Request for Information (RFI).

On September 28, 2006, the GSA SmartPay office released the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the GSA SP2 program on FedBizOpps. The contract, which is effective November 30, 2008, was awarded to Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and U.S. Bank. The SP2 program seeks to provide agencies with improvements in these key areas:

New products and services. New products and services are offered as core requirements, separately priced items, and value added items, including: pre-paid cards, contactless cards, and cards in foreign currencies. The Government also asked offerors to propose alternatives to convenience check use;

Enhanced customer service. Worldwide customer service 24/7 has been expanded to include the option for agencies/organizations to receive foreign language customer support for cardholders using their cards overseas, as specified at the task order level;

Security of systems and data. The SP2 solicitation contains increased security requirements regarding data management and handling, including new requirements that successful offerors comply with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) and the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards, house their data facilities in the United States, and restrict data access to personnel with the required level of security clearance. In addition, successful offerors will be required to comply with new program data and interface standards;

Interchange rates. Lowered interchange rates for Government to Government transactions are required, as well as reduced rates or other alternative approaches for "large ticket" purchases;

Enhanced data capture. Innovative solutions were sought from offerors to improve the quality of data (e.g., expanded collection of Level 3 data) to support the Government's strategic sourcing initiatives, risk mitigation measures, management reports, and other program reporting objectives;

Tax reclamation. Improvements in tax recovery are required to facilitate recovery of taxes paid by agencies/organizations on tax exempt Government transactions; and,

Live test demonstrations. Offerors determined to be within the competitive range were required to submit their Electronic Access System to GSA testing.
 


The GSA SmartPay® program provides charge cards to agencies/departments throughout the U.S. government, as well as tribal governments, through master contracts that are negotiated with major national banks.

SmartPay® Charge Cards are for Official U.S. Government usage only.

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