Treasury Services Business Continuity

Overview - Disruption to Federal Reserve Electronic Tax Application Services (FR-ETA)

The Federal Reserve Electronic Tax Application (FR-ETA) provides a same-day Federal tax payment mechanism for business tax filers and payroll processors via their financial institutions. Financial Institutions (FIs) nationwide can submit Federal Tax payment information to FR-ETA, on behalf of their corporate customers, using the Federal Reserve Fedwire® Funds Transfer application.

All Fedwire tax messages are passed to FR-ETA for processing. FR-ETA assigns an IRS Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) number to all accepted transactions. FR-ETA passes transaction summary data, by FI, to the Treasury Investment Program (TIP), on an hourly basis. At the end of each business day, FR-ETA passes taxpayer transaction detail to the IRS via the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) Agents.

It is possible for the FR-ETA program to experience outages and interruptions to processing for a variety of reasons. These reasons include, but are not limited to:

  • Network/communications failures
  • Application failure

During an FR-ETA Disruption - What to Expect

Notification of FR-ETA processing delays and subsequent status information will be made to FIs via the Funds “good morning message” distribution, as deemed appropriate. FR-ETA business partners, including the IRS will be advised of any delays in processing tax payments.

During an FR-ETA contingency, the Funds application can still continue to receive tax related wires. Upon restoring operations, FR-ETA will retrieve and process all pending tax transactions and pass information to the IRS and TIP. Depending upon the recovery time, TIP and IRS processing of such data could be delayed one business day.

During an FR-ETA Disruption - What You Should Do

  • Continue to conduct business as normal.
  • Following the application recovery, if you have transaction questions, you may: 1) refer to the daily FR-ETA Activity Statement upon receipt, if your bank uses this service; 2) contact the FR-ETA Customer Service Unit; or 3) contact the EFTPS Customer Service Center (next day).

FR-ETA Customer Service Unit: (800) 382-0045

EFTPS Customer Service Center: (800) 605-9876

Overview - Disruptions to Federal Reserve Treasury Action Services

The Treasury Automated Auction Processing System (TAAPS) receives and processes tenders for Treasury-marketable securities. Marketable Treasury securities are issued through regularly scheduled auctions in what is called the primary market. The process involves the Federal Reserve Banks, which serve as conduits for the auctions. Because market activity is concentrated in New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York coordinates much of the auction activity.

It is possible for the Treasury Auction program to experience outages and interruptions to processing for a variety of reasons. These reasons include, but are not limited to:

  • Network/communications failures
  • Building deemed inaccessible
  • Application failure
  • Natural or man made disaster

During a TAAPS Disruption - What to Expect

In the event of a contingency impacting the Reserve Bank it is expected that Treasury Auction will continue without interruption. The Fed has established several back up and recovery mechanisms to insure that auction processing is not interrupted.

During a TAAPS Disruption - What You Should Do

If dealers are unable to reach the trading desk at (212) 720-6860 or NY Treasury Auction staff at (212) 720-1805, they have been instructed to call the Treasury Auction help line at (866) 691-3770.

Overview - Disruption to Federal Reserve Savings Bond Services

The Federal Reserve plays an integral role in carrying out the Bureau of the Public Debt's mission regarding the sale and redemption of U.S. Savings Bonds. Effective October 2005, two Federal Reserve Banks/Branches serve as the Treasury Retail Securities Sites that provide services for agents and the public.

Minneapolis: (800) 553-2663

Pittsburgh: (800) 245-2804

Savings bonds play a unique and important role in Treasury's debt financing and support BPD's goal to increase personal savings in the U.S. The program issues and redeems more than 100 million savings bonds each year, providing more than 50 million people with a safe, convenient savings mechanism.

It is possible for the Savings Bond program to experience outages and interruptions to processing for a variety of reasons. These reasons include, but are not limited to:

  • Network/communications failures
  • Building deemed inaccessible
  • Application failure
  • Natural or man made disaster

During a Disruption in Federal Reserve Savings Bond Services - What to Expect

Savings Bond customer support is provided by two Treasury Retail Securities Sites in different parts of the country. While each of these sites operates somewhat independently of one another, they back up one another. Therefore, customers can expect to be routed to the backup customer support site in the event that their designated site becomes inoperable. It is not expected that a transfer of such responsibilities would cause a delay in processing. Any calls or new processing work will be redistributed and customers can expect business to resume with minimal delay.

During a Disruption in Federal Reserve Savings Bond Services - What You Should Do

Continue to conduct business as usual. If the Treasury Retails Securities Site that you normally work with is deemed inoperable for a time your transactions will be rerouted to a different site.

Minneapolis: (800) 553-2663

Pittsburgh: (800) 245-2804

Overview - Disruption to TT&L Services

Treasury Tax and Loan (TT&L) is the single largest tax collection and reporting system within the Federal government. It exchanges information with financial institutions, the Treasury, the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), the Federal Reserve Safekeeping Systems and the Federal Reserve’s Accounting System. The TT&L program has three major functions:

  • Tax collection and settlement
  • Withdrawals and investments
  • Collateral monitoring

It enables qualified financial institutions to use Federal Tax Deposits (FTDs) and additional Treasury funds, if the financial institution so chooses, at a reduced interest rate.

The TT&L program is comprised of two applications: the Treasury Investment Program (TIP) and the Paper Tax System (PATAX). TIP primarily handles Treasury investments, withdrawals, and account reconciliation while PATAX handles Advice of Credit (AOC) processing for FTDs.

It is possible that the TT&L program could experience outages and interruptions to processing for a variety of reasons. These reasons include, but are not limited to:

  • Network/communications failures
  • Building deemed inaccessible
  • Application failure
  • Natural or man made disaster

During a Federal Reserve TT&L Business Disruption - What to Expect

The TT&L Treasury Support Center (TSC) services all TT&L customers across the nation. In the event that a business disruption situation should arise, the TT&L-NCSA has immediate recovery plans for the applications that support the TT&L business, as well as the customer service areas, that will allow them to continue operations with minimal interruption. Customers might experience a temporary interruption in service during a business disruption scenario, but should not expect to alter their TT&L processing. During a disruption to the TT&L business, customers should still expect to process their AOCs and manage their main account balance and collateral as normal and can expect to call the same number for assistance with TT&L.

During a Federal Reserve TT&L Business Disruption - What You Should Do

During a disruption to the TT&L business customers should still expect to process their AOCs as normal. For more information, contact (888) 568-7343 – both under normal and business continuity circumstances.

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