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(From America’s Credit Unions Compliance Blog)
By Nancy DeGrandi, Manager, Federal Compliance Research and Analysis
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Treasury Check Verification System or TCVS, but if not, the TCVS is a system used to verify the authenticity of a Treasury check utilizing the check symbol and serial number, as well as the check number, check date, and payment amount. This past March, the Bureau of Fiscal Service issued a notice to financial institutions about potential updates to the TCVS. As you may know, there are two ways to access the TCVS—either via TCVS’s public facing website or through the secure Application Programming Interface or API.
The March notice alerted financial institutions to possible upcoming updates to the API that might include validating the payee’s name on US Treasury Checks. Well, last month, the Bureau of Fiscal Service issued a notice to financial institutions that users of the API portal, beginning November 18, 2024, can now verify the payee information on U.S. Treasury checks. It’s important to highlight that the ability to verify the payee’s name is NOT something that can be done on the TCVS public facing website. This new feature is only available to users of the TCVS’s API portal.
I know what’s probably going through your mind right now…how does one get access? Well, all you need to do is review the Terms and Conditions, fill in the financial institution’s name, and complete the signature page and submit it back to Treasury via email to paymentintegrity@fiscal.treasury.gov. It seems pretty straightforward and simple but from what I understand the process is not—shall we say—immediate as one would expect these days.
Full disclosure here—in order to access the API portal, keys (credentials) are involved. And, in order to get the keys, Treasury does need to review the application prior to the issuance of the keys for the institution’s access. It seems that this likely involves waiting a couple of weeks or so before the institution is notified and given their keys to access the API portal. If you’re already using the API portal—you’re good to go and should be able to obtain the payee information on US Treasury checks (issued within the last 13 months) along with the other information.
This enhanced version of the API portal is another tool in the fraud prevention toolbox that credit unions can use (along with the TCVS public facing website) and this handy graphic detailing the security features on U.S. Treasury checks.
So, in the spirit of the holiday season, you know, out with the old and in with the new — maybe give it a try. I bid you all adieu for the remainder of 2024. Don’t forget to raise a glass of appreciation to old friends (and, heck, new friends too) as you ring in 2025:
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
Wishing everyone good things in 2025!