In a Request for Quotation (RFQ) released Thursday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles seeks a contractor to provide check verification services for e-check payments received through the DMV Internet site. This follows the department’s move last year to begin accepting credit card and mobile wallet payments at all offices. Among the takeaways:
- Electronic Fund Transfer, or electronic check (e-check), is not new to DMV. The department’s online payment system has been accepting e-check payments from online customers since 2006. Incorrect e-check information entered by customers is a consistent issue, and the department has improved its processes by adding check samples for customers to review and by warning them not to include their check number in routing or account number information. Since October 2012, DMV has used TheECheck verification service, which confirms routing and account numbers and fund availability; this has helped eliminate “dishonored checks” and customer complaints, per the RFQ. Simultaneously, e-check transactions are increasing; DMV estimates it will receive 560,000 e-check transactions a month during Fiscal Year 2020-2021, which began July 1.
- DMV defines a successful transaction as one in which a customer’s e-check account information and sufficiency of funds has been verified, regardless of whether the transaction is successfully processed. It defines an unsuccessful transaction is “any e-check payment information that cannot be verified.” In this process, DMV’s system will send e-check bank routing and account numbers to the verification system of the vendor selected via a secure, encrypted process and the vendor will respond to DMV’s system. That process must have real-time verification of e-check account information and fund sufficiency, and customers must be able to fix inaccurate routing and account numbers, or cancel transactions. The candidate selected must be able to finish verification on at least 90 percent of e-check bank routing and account numbers for online payments that are submitted to be validated. The process must be able to communicate securely and comply with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). E-check information cannot be stored in the vendor’s check verification system after the transaction is finished.
- The candidate selected will be charged with operating the check verification service. Main responsibilities include e-check verification services, maintaining and supporting that process, interfacing with DMV’s current system to accept customers’ account information and returning the appropriate message depending on the results. The contractor chosen will bear all costs, including costs during testing, implementation and maintenance, of the services associated with this contract, according to the RFQ. The contractor must allow continued DMV testing during the contract at no additional cost.
- Vendor qualifications include at least three years of demonstrated experience “providing and maintaining the check verification services.” Customer references must include “at least one customer who has used the check verification services for at least one year.” The contractor selected must ensure its personnel have at least one year of experience “testing, managing, and deploying check verification services” and “interfacing with applications via an XML message using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).” Personnel must also have at least one year of experience “working with web services integration” and in “network and firewall configuration.”
- The contract term is one year from execution and the successful candidate will not be authorized to “deliver or commence performance of services” until getting written approval from all entities and until the contract is executed. The candidate selected must be able to meet the RFQ’s requirements and start work within 10 days of the award date. “The total number of months for this contract will depend upon the contract execution date, which will determine the estimated value of the contract,” DMV says. A table for applicants to specify their “total e-check transactions cost per month” reflects the estimated 560,000 e-check transactions per month. Responses are due by 10 a.m. Dec. 9. DMV is expected to issue its intent to award Dec. 10, and to award the contract Dec. 22.
