IV. St. Louis Steps Up

By now, we’ve learned that the Federal Reserve’s work for the Treasury is vast, varied and voluminous. With Reserve banks across the country performing many unrelated operations, it is essential that one office serve as a centralized headquarters to coordinate and manage all of the work. In 2001, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ formal proposal to assume this role was approved by the Federal Reserve’s governing body for financial services, the Financial Services Policy Committee.

The St. Louis Fed’s Treasury Relations and Support Office (TRSO) now has about four years under its belt serving as the liaison between the Fed and the Treasury. The desire to become the Treasury’s relationship office was not a fleeting hope. The idea was a Bank strategic objective for several years running before the Fed rotated the office to St. Louis.

Prior to being awarded the office, the St. Louis Fed served as a provider of Treasury services through modernizing the Treasury Tax and Loan function and through implementing CASH TRACK. Today, the St. Louis Fed still employs a large staff whose mission is to support Treasury services such as CASH TRACK, the Treasury Investment Program, tax collections and web development services to agencies for collecting funds and reporting information.

“Our objective was to expand our Bank’s role as a key and trusted business partner of the Treasury,” said LeGrande Rives, first vice president of the St. Louis Fed and the leader of the bid to obtain the TRSO. “In addition to mentioning our past successes in our proposal, we strongly emphasized the need to identify strategic initiatives and opportunities that benefit both organizations, while ensuring that all Treasury-related Fed initiatives are successfully completed.”

The TRSO’s responsibilities fall into three major categories: 1. relationship management; 2. strategic consulting; and 3. oversight of Fed initiatives in support of the Treasury’s strategic directions.

Relationship Management: As the Treasury’s chief advocate within the Federal Reserve System, the TRSO ensures that the Treasury’s strategic direction and specific initiatives are understood by all relevant Fed System officials. At the same time, officials identify any System initiatives that may affect the Treasury and incorporate the Treasury’s interests into the System’s planning, decision-making and scheduling. St. Louis is also the focal point within the Fed System for the resolution of policy and operational issues. To keep the relationship between the Fed and the Treasury strong, the TRSO stays in constant contact with the FMS, BPD and OFAS.

Strategic Consulting: The TRSO consults with the Treasury as a think tank would—immersing itself in information about the Treasury’s strategic needs related to fiscal and payment-related activities. If the TRSO identifies any potential gaps between strategic direction and work being pursued by the Treasury and/or the Fed System, it looks to surface ideas for products and services that could fill these gaps. In this capacity, the TRSO also seeks out ways to share expertise and lessons learned between the Treasury and the Federal Reserve banks.

Oversight of Fed Initiatives for the Treasury: The TRSO is responsible for the completion—on time and within budget—of all fiscal projects the Fed performs for the Treasury. For payments-related projects that fall under the domain of other Federal Reserve product offices, the TRSO provides oversight primarily by monitoring progress on each project’s key interim deadlines, costs and status of outstanding issues. The TRSO hosts a number of regular meetings and conference calls to keep Fed System Treasury groups informed about any updates.

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