BAMS Contracting and Nelnet Processing BUDGET ACCOUNTING & REPORTING MEETING OCTOBER 2015

Introductions  Dawn Vinberg, Executive Director, Shoreline Community College  Jennifer Fenske, Financial Services Director, Shoreline Community College  Ryan Pitroff, Banking Services Manager, Office of the State Treasurer  Tami Taylor, Banking Services, Office of the State Treasurer  Jon Potter, Regional Vice President, Nelnet Business Solutions

Background  Prior to Dec. 2012, 3 rd party vendors were the merchant of record, and were directly charging customers a convenience fee. The VISA rules were almost impossible to comply with, so most were only accepting MasterCard, Discover and American Express for payment.  Dec – VISA rolled out a new program called the Government Service Fee Program only for certain merchants who are classified under one of the following Merchant Category Codes:  Government merchants:MCC 9311-Tax; MCC 9222-Fines; MCC 9211-Court Costs; MCC Miscellaneous Government Services  Tuition payments for higher education: MCC 8220-College Tuition;MCC 8244-Business;MCC Trade Schools  Under the Government Service Fee Program, a 3 rd party is allowed to assess the service fee, but the merchant of record for the sale transaction MUST be classified as one of the qualifying MCC’s.

Background  After Dec VISA started cracking down on 3 rd party service providers who were the merchant of record, but were NOT government or Higher Education. Because of this, the colleges’ 3 rd party provider wanted to issue new MIDs from their acquiring bank to make each college the merchant of record.  The Office of the State Treasurer (OST) by law is responsible for contracting with financial institutions and for coordinating agencies use of electronic payments, including bankcards. OST has a master contract for Merchant Bankcard Services with Bank of America Merchant Services (BAMS).  As a result, when the 3 rd party wanted to make each college the merchant of record, that brought the program under the oversight of OST, as we contract for all state agencies(which includes the Community and Technical College system). We could not allow this program to “go off contract”, but needed the sale merchant accounts to be issues by BAMS

BAMS Contract Requirements  BAMS was chosen as the state’s vendor primarily because of the flexibility they offer state agencies. They allow the use of any processor or 3 rd party service provider as long as that provider can Authorize and Settle transactions using BAMS MIDs through one of the multiple FirstData Gateways.  Because of the nature of the Government Service Fee Program, all 3 rd Party Service Providers must also have a direct relationship (contract) with BAMS, separate from the state’s agreement.  Applies to all 3 rd Party service providers, not just a specific vendor.

Working with BAMS and OST  All requests for MIDs from BAMS must be made through the Office of the State Treasurer.  You can also contact the OST Bankcard Coordinator (Tami Taylor) at ; or the OST Banking Services Manager (Ryan Pitroff)  Part of the MID setup is determining what processor/gateway the 3 rd party either uses or is certified to. We also need to know if the college is going to participate in the Government Service Fee program or not.  OST is willing to be on conference calls with 3 rd Party vendors, but a representative from the merchant must always be present.  Once the MID is issued, OST will provide the college with a VAR sheet (information sheet about the MID) that the college will then need to pass to their 3 rd party to complete the setup.

Plan to solve the problem  Identified the steps to move forward  Sent an to all of BAR and BAC  Slow progress  Testing Underway

Specific steps for the colleges  Get a new BAMS Merchant ID  Gather the info for the VAR chart

Plan for Pilot testing  Testing – What is the status?  Timing for making the change  Other things you should know

Nelnet side of Testing

Nelnet and ctcLink

Questions  Closing remarks and contact information