PAYMENT CARD DEPOSITS - 8032.6

Agencies/Departments shall adhere to the following procedures for depositing card payments (e.g., credit card, debit card, Automated Teller Machine [ATM] cards, Smart cards [monetary value stored on the card itself]) for both the state’s Master Service Agreement for payment card processing and an agency/department’s individually contracted processor. The contracting agency/department should ensure that any contract or agreement with the processor includes provisions that are consistent with the following procedures:

1. Agencies/Departments accepting payment cards shall establish a Zero Balance Account (ZBA) at the main branch of an approved depository bank and process all payment card transactions through the ZBA. For information on establishing a ZBA, see SAM Section 8002. For a list of approved depositories, see SAM Section 8031.
2. The payment card processor will transmit the daily payment card transaction amounts to the agency/department’s ZBA and make all transaction data available to the agency/department. At the close of each business day, the bank will electronically transfer the agency/department’s ZBA net amount into the appropriate demand depository account. The bank will supply periodic statements to the agency/department for reconciliation purposes. The processor will not make any unauthorized debits to the agency/department’s ZBA.
3. Each business day, the State Treasurer’s Office (STO) will automatically process the net payment card amount transferred into the demand depository account for the previous day’s activity directly into the agency/department’s centralized State Treasury System (CTS) account. This process eliminates the need for agencies/departments to submit deposit slips for payment card transactions.

The STO will automatically create ZBA deposits for credit transfers and Agency Trust Adjustment deposits for debit transfers to the agency/department’s CTS account.

Agencies/Departments are responsible for reconciling their ZBA activity and should direct any payment card questions or disputes to the payment card processor.