Plastic Card Network

Created in 1986 and managed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Management Service, the Plastic Card Network (PCN) allows government agencies to collect obligations via commercial credit and debit cards. These include Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express®, Diner’s Club® and Discover®.

Bank of America is among the select financial institutions authorized by the Treasury Department to help agencies implement and execute the PCN program. As a long time leader in electronic payments and one of the largest issuers of Visa and MasterCard–with more than 15 years of dedicated government banking expertise–Bank of America is a powerful partner for PCN–related merchant processing services.

Who Can Benefit

Capabilities

Faster Funding and Reconcilement

• Credit card data is captured at the point of sale and then transmitted to the bank for settlement. Once the transactions are transmitted, Bank of America will fund the appropriate Agency Location Code (ALC) via the Treasury Department's CA$HLINK Agency Access System*. Funding typically occurs within 48 hours after the transaction takes place.
• The Bank of America Merchant Reporting System, exclusive to our Federal Plastic Card Network agencies, allows on–demand access to detailed credit and debit card activity via a secure Internet Web site. Information required to reconcile accounts, can be viewed, printed and downloaded on demand.

Merchant Processing

Processing solutions include:

• Point of Sale (POS) Terminals: The easiest option for in–person transactions, allowing your agency to process credit and debit card transactions using a range of standalone machines and printers by Verifone®, Hypercom® and IVI Checkmate™, to name a few.
• PC Payment Software: Ideal for transactions typically done via mail or telephone, you can replace or augment POS terminals with PC software programs that allow you to customize your processing and reporting needs. Bank of America’s PC payment software supports Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and Diner's Club–as well as Level III purchasing card data capture.
• PC Processing (Real Time and Batch): We support a variety of third party software programs used by many federal agencies and retailers, allowing either real time, individual transaction processing–or batch transaction processing, in which you can enter and transmit a large number of transactions simultaneously.
• Internet Transactions: For maximum flexibility in automated collections, Bank of America can help facilitate secure credit card collections via the Internet using the Bank of America/Financial Management Service web payment server* or through Pay.gov*.
• PC HUB Processing: Using VisaNet POS Partner, you can integrate your dial–up terminals with a host PC in a central accounting office. You can review and edit transactions at the PC, prior to transmitting them to the bank for settlement. POS Partner will also allow you to generate daily reports for each POS terminal, import and export data, and use the Address Verification Service.
• Electronic Cash Register (ECR) Integration: We support most major third-party software programs that allow you to integrate credit card processing into many of today’s POS cash register systems, for a completely seamless collections solution.
• Lockbox Processing: Our lockbox remittance processing capabilities provide another proven solution for processing credit card receivables (contact your Bank of America representative for more information).

Merchant Reporting

• Charge back list.
• Charge back statistics.
• Daily transaction detail.
• Group recap.
• Merchant statement.
• Monthly sales history.
• Rejected transactions.
• Single/multiple day funding.

Accessibility

To join the PCN, submit an application to the Financial Management Service (FMS) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (available online at the FMS Plastic Card Network web site*). Or, contact your Bank of America representative for more information.

You can begin accepting and processing credit card transactions within a few weeks of approval by the FMS.

A Bank of America representative will provide the personal support and training to help you develop and implement the right solution, right away.