Central to supporting the U.S. Treasury's financial operations
The Federal Reserve is the bank for the U.S. government. To facilitate the smooth functioning of the government, the Federal Reserve System provides numerous services for the U.S. Treasury. The St. Louis Fed manages these Treasury services by coordinating more than 45 System operations and business lines provided at Reserve banks across the country.
The Treasury Relations and Support Office (TRSO) at the St. Louis Fed serves as a central point of contact with the three financial operations bureaus at the Treasury on policy issues, new initiatives and problem resolution. TRSO employees monitor the Fed’s Treasury-related projects to ensure that they are completed on time and within budget.
HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS AREA FROM 2008 INCLUDED:
- The TRSO continued coordinating the Federal Reserve’s participation in one of Treasury’s major re-engineering efforts—the Collections and Cash Management Modernization (CCMM) initiative. This initiative involves fundamentally restructuring how Treasury collects money owed to the government and how it reports these transactions to federal agencies. The TRSO worked closely with Treasury and Fed officials to ensure appropriate engagement by and progress in the eight CCMM business lines operated in the Fed.
- The TRSO completed a study for Treasury’s Financial Management Service (FMS) on how to improve the customer service support centers that the Fed operates for FMS business lines.
- The TRSO’s role in coordinating the Go Direct marketing campaign grew after the Treasury announced a Direct Express debit card program. The Direct Express card allows Social Security beneficiaries to get their payments electronically even if they do not have a bank account. The program had 238,055 enrollments between April and November 2008, greatly exceeding the initial projection of 100,000.
Treasury Relations and System Support (TRASS) in St. Louis operates nine Treasury business lines by providing tax collection, cash management and reporting services to the U.S. Treasury.
HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS AREA FROM 2008 INCLUDED:
- The Bank’s repo (repurchase agreements) investment reached a daily high of $12 billion to accommodate the daily cash-flow needs at Treasury.
- The Bank continued to excel with its software development objectives. All 18 software releases were successfully implemented on time and within budget.
- The Bank’s Treasury General Account Deposit Reporting Network (TGAnet) received more than $32 billion in fourth-quarter 2008 deposits, which increased the total amount processed through TGAnet since its inception in 2005 to more than $1 trillion. The St. Louis Fed developed this system for the Treasury. TGAnet has revolutionized the way that the government collects, stores and reports its revenue transactions.