An Introduction to the 

Card Acquiring Service
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CAS Program History

CAS Program Overview

How To Get Started With CAS

CASA Process

CAS Transaction Flow Diagram

Contact Information

Presentation Outline
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Established in 

1987

Formerly 

known as the 

Plastic Card 

Network

Program name 

changed 

officially in 

2007 to the 

Card Acquiring 

Service (CAS)

In 2017, the 

program has 

been in 

operation for 

thirty years

CAS Program History
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Services: 

CAS provides 

merchant services for 

credit, debit, electronic 

benefit transfer (EBT) 

and stored-value (e.g. 

gift, etc.) cards for 

federal partner 

agencies

Vendor Support:

Financial Agent and 

Merchant Acquirer: 

Comerica Bank

Merchant Processor: 

Worldpay

Revenue: 

CAS processes at 

approximately 6,000 

locations over 10,000 

point-of-sale endpoints 

CAS Overview

What is CAS? CAS is a Fiscal Service federal program that 

provides federal agencies payment card acceptance capabilities.
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CAS Overview: CAS Key Terminology

Chain 

Number

• Alphanumeric designator assigned by acquirer to 

reflect unique channel of processing (e.g. 0F123B)

Division 

Number

• Three digit value assigned under a chain to 

designate unique lines of accounting (e.g. 001)

Merchant ID 

(MID)

• Unique designator assigned by acquirer to reflect 

location of processing (e.g. 44450XXXXXXXXX)

Terminal ID 

(TID)

• Unique designator assigned by acquirer to reflect 

each terminal (e.g. 1214895)
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Acceptance Points

• Traditional standalone terminals

• Integrated point of sale solutions (e.g. electronic cash registers)

• Mobile Program: Public App (card-not-present)

• Mobile Program: FedRevCollect (card-present, tokenized)

• Kiosks

• Internet-based software applications (e.g. Pay.gov)

Products & Services

• Europay, MasterCard, & Visa (EMV) 

• End-2-End Encryption 

• Tokenization 

Card Acceptance Points, Products & Services 
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POS

VAR

Pay.gov

Mobile

Card Acceptance Points, Products & Services 

Card Acceptance Points

Point-of-Sale (POS) Device – a type of electronictransaction terminal typically including a computer, cash 

register and other equipment or software used to sell goods 

or services. 

Value Added Reseller (VAR) – is a company or 

organization that adds features or services to an 

existing product, then resells it (usually to end-users) 

as an integrated product or complete "turn-key" 

solution.

Pay.gov – Pay.gov is a convenient and secure 

electronic payments system used by Federal 

Government Agencies. Many common forms of 

payment are accepted, including credit cards, debit 

cards, and direct debit.

Mobile Program: FedRevCollect - is a mobile application 

which provides government agencies with a convenient, 

simple, and secure way to accept card transactions, along 

with personal checks, at the point-of-collection.
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Preliminary Steps:

• Determine your account creation strategy (e.g. new chain and/or 

new MID)

• All agencies interested in establishing a card services account for:

How To Get Started With CAS

Stand-alone Terminals 

Value Added Resellers

Integrated Software Vendors

Mobile Applications and 

Devices 

Pay.gov Account Request - Agencies that would like to establish a new and/or add locations to an 

existing account for card processing via Pay.gov, are required to contact their organizations Pay.gov 

Implementation Specialist, in order to submit applications for consideration. 

Complete a 

CAS 

Application
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How To Get Started With CAS

Agencies who qualify to work with CAS directly, your organization 

can join CAS through three (3) simple steps:
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CASA Review Process

Federal Agency Process

These are the steps required by the agency customer 

in order to initiate the CAS Application review process. 

The process time of these steps are contingent upon 

the type and number of account(s) (e.g. Terminal 

POS, Pay.gov, Mobile, VAR/ISV) being requested.

1

CAS Process

CAS retrieves, processes, and approves all properly 

submitted CAS Applications. The current processing 

time for Fiscal Service CAS approval is one 

business week (i.e. 5 business days). 

2

Worldpay Process

Worldpay is responsible for the creation of CAS 

accounts. A full account set-up would consist of a 

Chain and Merchant Identification Number (MID). A 

partial account set- up would consist of adding MIDs 

to an existing Chain. The current processing time 

for account creation is 7 business days. 

3
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CAS Transaction Flow Diagram
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CAS Agency Outreach Email: CardAcquiringService@fiscal.treasury.gov

Financial Agent/Acquirer: 

Email: RMTreasury@worldpay.com

Phone: (866)-914-0558

Contact Information