Financial Services Operations
Payment Card Procedures and Guidelines
Processing Payment Cards
Brown University departments seeking to accept payment card transactions must request approval from Financial Services by completing a New Merchant Request Form.
- If approved, implementation of this process may take 60 days or longer.
- Fees associated with the acceptance of credit cards will be charged to the department's budget.
- Under no circumstances should a department contact a credit card servicer directly or begin accepting credit cards without prior approval by Financial Services.
This page outlines the detailed requirements in order to accept payment card transactions. It is to be used to assist departments with gathering information to make the request to Financial Services and the Commerce Committee for new merchants.
Departments looking to utilize an online commerce site or in-person payment card device for the purpose of ticket sales, registrations, and other types of products, that are a single-use or one-time event, may be able to utilize the Financial Services Merchant.
Commerce Committee
The Commerce Committee is a standing committee composed of representatives from Finance and Administrative Services, Office of Information Technology, and Internal Audit.
The Committee will perform the following functions:
- Establish registration requirements for commerce approval;
- Review and approve/deny requests for establishment of commerce presence;
- Advise Senior Officers on commerce policy, process, vendors, dissemination/publication of commerce information, and commerce matters in general; and
- Evaluate and exercise due diligence of vendor relationships, including monitoring service providers’ PCI DSS compliance on an annual basis.
Implementing Payment Card Processing
- Review Accepting and Handling Payment Cards Policy.
- Complete a New Merchant Request Form. Please allow 10 business days for processing.
- Financial Services will contact you regarding your request. If your request is approved, a new merchant account number will be requested and assigned to your department.
- Training will be provided by Financial Services if using the TouchNet system. Training is required for all individuals in need of access to TouchNet. PCI Compliance training is required for all individuals handling credit card payments.
- Implementation may take up to 90 days.
- Email questions to commerce@brown.edu.