The U.S. Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service and the Federal Reserve's Treasury Retail Securities Site would like to thank participating financial institutions for their continued support of the U.S. Savings Bond Program. We are working together to identify ways to streamline and modernize the redemption process to make it easier for your staff to provide high quality, efficient and accurate services to your customers. Below are a variety of resources that we've gathered to assist you. We encourage you to bookmark this page and check back often for updated content.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) recently launched a simple and easy-to-use Savings Bond Valuation and Verification (SBVV) tool (Off-site). This tool enables paying agent institutions to quickly calculate a savings bond’s total value and verify a savings bond’s validity.
Below are some comments on the tool from our Federal Reserve account executives:
“Paying agents have been asking for a more streamlined redemption process. This SBVV tool now provides them with much more ease and efficiency.”
“This new SBVV tool not only saves time and effort, it also lessens the risk of redeeming an invalid bond.”
“SBVV is so easy. Tellers only need to enter a bond’s serial number into one field, then the tool displays the bond’s redemption value and confirms its validity.”
Watch the short demo video (Off-site) to become familiar with the SBVV tool. Once your institution begins using the SBVV tool, your customer-facing staff will be able to:
Throughout the 85-year evolution (Off-site) of the U.S. Savings Bonds Program, Fiscal Service has continually relied on feedback provided by paying agent institutions, such as yours. The easy-to-use SBVV tool now offers paying agents a great solution for cashing savings bonds.
Please use the online submission form (Off-site) to request additional information or to discuss a software API available for custom integrations.
In an effort to streamline the savings bond redemption process, we would like to inform you about the latest tool in our toolbox for financial institutions. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) has launched a simple and easy-to-use Savings Bond Valuation and Verification (SBVV) tool (Off-site). This tool enables paying agent institutions to quickly calculate a savings bond’s total value and verify a savings bond’s validity.
With the SBVV tool, your customer-facing staff are able to:
Watch the short demo video (Off-site) to become familiar with the SBVV tool.
Throughout the 85-year evolution (Off-site) of the U.S. Savings Bonds Program, we have continually relied on feedback provided by paying agent institutions, such as yours. Your requests have been heard. The easy-to-use SBVV tool now offers paying agents a great solution for cashing savings bonds.
Please use the online submission form (Off-site) to request additional information or to discuss a software API available for custom integrations.
Introducing a brand new Savings Bond Academy online training tool!: Have questions about cashing savings bonds? Use the new Savings Bond Academy (Off-site) online training tool to refresh your knowledge and help onboard new employees. Created for individuals responsible for cashing savings bonds for customers, the tool uses scenario-based instructions and is useful for assisting customers with answers to their specific questions.
In addition to this new tool, the Savings Bond Redemptions Frequently Asked Questions page and The Guide to Cashing Savings Bonds (Off-site, PDF) on the TreasuryDirect® website are also great resources to get the answers you need, when you need them. And, of course, Savings Bond Customer Support Contacts are always available to assist you at P: (844) 284-2676.
New resources for savings bond paying agents: We know savings bond redemptions can be complicated and, at times, confusing. Although we can’t make the redemption process less complicated, we can provide resources to make it less confusing. The U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, has created a new set of Savings Bond Redemptions Frequently Asked Questions specifically related to bond redemptions. Take a look and let us know if we missed any key questions!
Savings Bond Wizard® retires on May 1, 2018: Effective May 1, the Savings Bond Wizard will no longer be available. However, there’s good news: the user-friendly Savings Bond Calculator offers more options than simply pricing bonds.
Historically, Treasury has offered three ways to calculate the redemption value of savings bonds:
Savings Bond Pro provides a large semi-annual file of redeemed bonds and redemption values to some financial institutions. Many institutions and individual customers used either the Savings Bond Calculator or the Savings Bond Wizard. The Wizard was friendly for customers but limited in options and, as use has declined, Treasury opted to decommission it and rely on the Calculator’s greater functionality instead.
The calculator returns the value of a bond – or multiple bonds – as of a date the customer requests and based on the series, denomination and issue dates of the bond(s). It offers even more information. Financial institutions and customers can:
The calculator prices Series EE, E and I bonds as well as Savings Notes. Beyond returning bond values, the calculator also shows the:
Specific instructions for converting inventories from the Wizard to the Calculator can be found in the existing Wizard Help pages, and instructions will be added to the Calculator page on May 1, 2018. Any rates for May acquired from the Savings Bond Wizard prior to its removal are accurate through May 31, 2018.
Visit the Savings Bond Calculator (Off-site) page for more information or to begin compiling an inventory.
Quarterly Savings Bond Paying Agent Community Meeting: The Savings Bond Paying Agent Community recently explored savings bond fraud, courtesy of a Fiscal Service specialist who walked through visual examples of actual fraudulent securities and provided tips for how to recognize them. Community members also shared best practices for bond valuation, determining ownership, future meeting topics and challenges with processing savings bonds.
Interested in becoming a community member and attending future meetings? Your financial institution is eligible to register up to three individuals as points of contact for the community. Sign up (Off-site) today! If you want more information about membership or about the fraudulent securities presentation, send us an email.
The Savings Bond Paying Agent Community began in 2017 as a way to promote communication, engagement and collaboration between financial institutions that serve as paying agents, Fiscal Service and the Federal Reserve Banks. The community meets quarterly so members can collaborate and share best practices, discuss challenges, propose solutions and discuss potential new technologies and improvements.
Savings Bond Paying Agent Community: Interested in collaborating with other financial institutions to share best practices, ideas and experiences related to the processing of savings bonds? Join the new Savings Bond Paying Agent Community! We have partnered to establish a new community to promote engagement and communication between Fiscal Service, the Federal Reserve and financial institutions serving as paying agents. Participants from 11 financial institutions participated in the first quarterly meeting on September 13, 2017. The most recent call was held on January 30, 2018. We encourage you to become a member. Your financial institution may register (Off-site) up to three individuals to be points of contact for the community, so sign up today!
Sharpening the Focus on Redemptions: To encourage savings bond owners to redeem their bonds, changes are being made to TreasuryDirect.gov (Off-site) and to other Treasury communication materials. Those changes highlight how visiting a local financial institution is the fastest and easiest way to cash savings bonds.
Bond holders sometimes think they must convert their paper bonds to electronic form before cashing them, but that’s not necessary. When customers only want to redeem, converting to electronic form adds an unnecessary step that extends their wait time before they can even request the redemption.
In an effort to help customers get their money faster, Treasury is directing all links dealing with cashing bonds to a new Cashing Savings Bonds (Off-site) landing page on TreasuryDirect.gov. The landing page also provides links for more complex requests and ensures the first thing customers see is that local banks and credit unions are the easiest and smartest choice for most redemption requests.
Consequently, when customers visit you for redemptions, it may create opportunities to expand your relationship with them. For example:
Regarding other changes, you’ll also see a new “STOP!” notice on the TreasuryDirect.gov Account Creation page with similar wording and a link to the landing page. This notice hits an entirely different customer base – those who use search engines and wiki pages to research cashing savings bonds. Since many sites mistakenly tell customers they must first convert bonds before cashing them, the “STOP” notice helps direct them to the correct site before they go to the trouble of setting up an account.
We’re committed to providing the information you need. Answers to many of your most frequently asked questions (FAQs) can be found on the links below.
We appreciate your support of the U.S. Savings Bond Program. Financial institutions with comments or suggestions may use the online submission form (Off-site). Individuals with questions are asked to contact the Treasury Retail Securities Site at P: (844) 284-2676.