The UK government is inviting bidders for a £49 million contract to embed open banking technology into its Gov.UK Pay payments platform.
Gov.UK Pay is used by central government, local authorities, police forces and NHS teams to take payments for their services digitally. Used by more than 1000 different public sector services, it has processed over 94 million transactions since 2016.
Following a request-for-information on the subject of a new supplier late last year, Government Digital Service (GDS) has now issued a market notice.
GDS is "seeking a payment service provider to underpin the Gov.UK Pay platform, specifically for processing credit and debit card payments and pay by bank (open banking) payments".
The contract, which has an estimated value of £49.2 million, is for an initial 36 month period from early July 2025, with two 12 month extension options.
The chosen PSP will have a 12-month onboarding period, before beginning service provision in 2026.
Currently, Gov.UK Pay uses Stripe for local authorities, police and government-owned charitable groups. For central government, arm’s length bodies and NHS payments, it uses Government Banking's PSP, Worldpay.