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Doing business whether you're a consumer or a government agency is made easier with a credit card. In keeping with this, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) partners with providers so that they have access to charge cards and related payment services - and they have awarded GSA SmartPay 3 Master Contracts to both Citi, a Credit-Land.com advertising partner, and U.S. Bank for just that reason. With the inking of these contracts, federal agencies will be able to take part in their card and payment services.
The GSA SmartPay 3 program provides agencies with a wide range of services, including travel, fleet, purchase, and integrated charge card services, as well as other kinds of payment solutions. These payment services are used by just about 560 government agencies and organizations.
With this program, the U.S. federal government gets to take advantage of a variety of payment options to take care of business, such as chip-enabled charge cards, virtual accounts, single-use accounts and declining balance accounts.
"GSA's SmartPay program provides agencies across government with payment solutions to streamline transactions, lower costs, and more effectively deliver services to the American people," said GSA Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Alan Thomas.
"We worked closely with our industry and agency partners in developing the next generation of the GSA SmartPay program to ensure that GSA SmartPay 3 offers federal agencies more value and efficiency in carrying out their missions," he said.
During 2016 federal agencies used GSA SmartPay over 91 million times to meet their travel, fleet and purchase needs - equals $28.5 billion in transactions.
This new contract allows Citi and U.S. Bank to provide services from 2018 through 2031; the contract is valued at $700 billion.
Not a new partnership
The partnership between both issuers and U.S. General Services Administration is not new. Citi has been taking part in the GSA SmartPay program ever since it began in 1998, having worked with more than 300 agency programs when taking part in the GSA SmartPay 2 program. And U.S. Bank began working with federal agencies in 1986.
"We are honored that the GSA has selected Citi to provide continued support for the U.S. government's charge card and payments activities," said Gonca Latif-Schmitt, Global Head of Commercial Cards at Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions.
"The new contract highlights our long-term commitment to serve U.S. government agencies and to work in partnership with the GSA to create innovative solutions that meet the government's unique and evolving needs," she said.
