HM Revenue & Customs has put out a £3 million tender for a provider to build an Open Banking-led payment initiation and account information service.

The latest update from the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) reveals that it is working with HMRC to find potential suppliers for a two to three-year project which will develop services based on Open Banking principles that “enable our customers to pay us by bank transfer using a secure, simple and efficient process”.

A tender document published on the government website states: “Currently, our bank transfer journey is non-automated, which can result in a high volume of customer errors which are resource intensive to rectify.

“It is anticipated that during the term of the contract Account Information Services may be required to deliver enhanced and tailored financial services, therefore interested suppliers must have the ability to provide both services from the outset.”

A maximum 10 of bidders will progress to the award stage, according to the document.

“By providing an innovative, well designed journey that can be populated with our numerous reference formats and HMRC bank accounts, with little effort from our customers, we believe we can encourage card payers to move to this more cost-effective method and subsequently reduce our payment associated costs significantly,” it added.

The chosen supplier must also be able to cope with the HMRC's peaks throughout the year and increased volumes during the contract period, implement delivery following Agile methods and within six weeks of award, as well as provide a customer service helpline to contact the supplier directly.

Those bidding for the tender must be registered and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and enrolled with OBIE.

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