Bacs accredited facilities management provider
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What is a facilities management provider?
In relation to Direct Debit, facilities management is defined as a situation where a service user (known as the facilities management provider) is taking responsibility for the collection or administration of Direct Debits on behalf of another organisation (known as the facilities management client), not necessarily being a service user in its own right.
Where facilities management providers offer such services to third parties, for example other businesses, from sole traders to corporate entities, regardless of whether charges are imposed or not, they are classed as operating commercially.
To promote fair competition in the use of the Bulk Change Process, all facilities management providers operating commercially are required by the Direct Debit rules to be accredited by Pay.UK. Pay.UK accreditation requires a facilities management provider to undertake to use the Bulk Change Process when requested to do so by their client, or the client’s new facilities management provider.
Pay.UK accreditation is required regardless of whether the facilities management provider’s business model:
- Provides each facilities management client with an individual service user number (SUN), or
- Collects all payments under a single service user number (SUN).
It should be noted that a facilities management provider’s sponsoring payment service provider (PSP) is responsible for assessing their suitability as a service user operating as a commercial facilities management provider and for ensuring their compliance with the rules and procedures for the use of the Bacs service.
For further details about facilities management accreditation contact us using the form below.
Identification of facilities management providers
It is the responsibility of sponsoring payment services providers (PSPs) to identify service users / prospective service users that are providing / are intending to provide a commercial facilities management proposition. In addition:
- There may be occasions where we identify organisations
- Service users may also proactively confirm to their sponsoring PSP that they are offering facilities management services.
Getting accredited
Accreditation is separate from any contractual arrangements between the applicant organisation (the service user) and its sponsoring PSP. If an applicant organisation is not yet a service user, they will be required to complete the facilities management accreditation process before they begin collecting Direct Debits on behalf of third party organisations.
Steps in the accreditation process:
- Application form provided by sponsoring PSP
- Completed application form returned to sponsoring PSP
- Completed application form sent to us by sponsoring PSP
- We will provide documentation to the applicant organisation for completion. This will include:
- Accreditation agreement together with supporting guidelines. This is a standard legal agreement creating a contract between us and the applicant organisation
- Questionnaire seeking information about how the applicant organisation operates and its facilities management specific activities
- Enforcement of compliance document – setting out the steps that we may follow in the event the applicant organisation should operate in a non-compliant way
- A tariff agreement – outlining the costs associated with accreditation
- Direct Debit Instruction for collection of the fee(s) contained in the tariff agreement.
Once all of the documentation has been completed, confirmation will be given that the organisation has been accredited. The organisation will then be listed on the Pay.UK site, and issued with an facilities management accredited logo.
Timeframe for completing accreditation
It is anticipated that the end-to-end accreditation process will take approximately one month, although this can vary on a case by case basis.
Ongoing requirements of accreditation
Each accredited organisation will be required to complete an annual self-certification questionnaire and pay an annual fee (details are included in the tariff agreement which will be supplied to organisations when they apply for accreditation).
We also reserve the right to undertake an inspection of the accredited organisation. Failure to fulfil the required obligations may result in the applicant organisation being prevented from collecting Direct Debits (see the enforcement of compliance document, which will be supplied to organisations when they apply for accreditation, for further details).
Further information
For further details about facilities management accreditation please contact us.