ITS.Gov is the Federal government’s all inclusive international payment and collection portal. Started in 1987 

as the International Direct Deposit (IDD) mainframe application, it initially processed only overseas Social 

Security benefit payments. In 2002 the system was enhanced to allow for processing foreign vendor, salary 

and miscellaneous payments and provide agency users with a web-based interface. In 2005, IDD was renamed ITS.Gov to better reflect its additional functionality and ability to deliver payments for vendor, 

miscellaneous, and salary payments, in addition to benefit payments. 

ITS.Gov offers a government-wide common solution for issuing international payments in mature and 

emerging markets worldwide. ITS.Gov enables Federal agencies to issue foreign currency payments via Direct 

Deposit, wire transfer, or draft to recipients in more than 150 countries. In addition, ITS.Gov enables agencies 

to issue international US Dollar wire transfer payments without a corresponding US financial institution in the 

foreign country. More than 75 Federal agencies including Department of Defense, State Department, Office of 

Personnel Management, Veterans Affairs and Social Security Administration take advantage of these services 

made available by FMS and ITS.Gov. 

 

With ITS.Gov, agencies have the option to make payments to international recipients in local currency or in 

US dollars. Also, agencies can issue international payments on a separate payment file or co-mingle them with 

their domestic Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments. 

 

Benefits of ITS.Gov include: 

 

• Provides users with an on-line interface to create, correct, and monitor international payments made by 

their agency. 

• Foreign currency amounts can be purchased at the time of payment at the most competitive rate 

possible, maximizing agency cash management. 

• Is the most cost-effective payment mechanism available for international payments. 

• Foreign exchange currency purchases are fast and easy-to-use with ITS.Gov. 

• Has the capability to process international electronic payments in emerging markets. 

• Is compatible with current agency file formats and effectively handles exception processing. 

• Employs the latest enhanced security technology, including Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). 

• Agencies can enroll their international Federal recipients using the ITS.Gov website, as opposed to 

paper enrollments. 

Agencies can obtain more information about ITS.Gov by accessing the ITS.Gov public website at 

www.fms.treas.gov/eft/regulations/international.html or by contacting Susan Helm at (202) 874-6873. 

 

International Treasury Services (ITS.Gov) 

Financial Management Service 

May 2008 Philadelphia Financial Center 

PFC Journal 

Inside this issue: 

CCMM 2 

PFC Agency Meeting 3 

Where’s My Refund? 4-5 
Collections and Cash Management Modernization (CCMM) is a new initiative of the Financial Management 

Service (FMS) to streamline and modernize FMS’ and Treasury’s collections and cash management programs. 

When implemented, CCMM changes will enable FMS to provide more efficient services to customer agencies and 

deliver substantial cost savings to the Federal government. 

Today, FMS processes 400 million transactions and collects over $3 trillion in revenue each year on behalf of 

hundreds of Federal agency offices and programs. To do so, FMS manages, with the support of nine Federal 

Reserve Banks and over 9,000 financial institutions, over two dozen collections and cash management systems and 

programs. The number and complexity of these systems and programs have grown significantly over the course of 

several decades as FMS and agency business needs have changed and multiplied. While these systems and 

programs are generally effective, they are not as efficient as they could be. The need to re-evaluate, simplify, and 

standardize has gradually become apparent and has led to the development of the CCMM initiative. 

CCMM is fundamentally an effort to redefine the business lines of collections and cash management and realign 

the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure to match them. CCMM aims to reduce the number of systems and 

processes that FMS must support, as well as the number of agents that FMS relies on to conduct its collection and 

cash management responsibilities. Through the elimination of duplicative data, products, interfaces, and 

technologies, FMS can become more efficient, minimize costs, and reduce the operational risk to the Federal 

government. In addition, FMS will be better positioned to meet the evolving needs of agencies for years to come. 

To achieve these improvements, CCMM is guided by a number of major goals that will impact agencies. One goal 

of CCMM is to restructure FMS’ collections programs. This includes consolidating collections programs such that 

each agency collection channel (e.g., mail, over the counter, Internet, and phone) is served by a single IT system. In 

addition, CCMM will separate collection channel activities from settlement operations (e.g., ACH, card, check, or 

wire). Each channel system will invoke a shared settlement service rather than performing settlement itself. The 

result of the reorganization will be fewer systems performing redundant functions. 

Another major goal of CCMM is to consolidate transaction reporting into a single system called the Transaction 

Reporting System (TRS). Today, agencies must interact with a myriad of collections programs to receive 

transaction and deposit reports. When implemented, TRS will provide agencies with a daily, consolidated view of 

all collections activity. As part of the initiative, FMS has developed an XML schema for all revenue collection 

transactions. The use of XML will facilitate the standardization of financial reporting, reduce data redundancy, and 

improve reporting consistency and data quality. 

In addition, the CCMM initiative will consolidate deposit reporting with transaction reporting. As TRS will also 

contain deposit reports, agencies will no longer have to reconcile transaction reports received from various FMS 

collections systems with the deposit details currently in CA$HLINK II. TRS will become the single touch-point for 

all agency reporting needs, whether transaction details or summary deposit information. 

In summary, the current number and complexity of FMS collections and cash management systems are a growing 

operational risk to the government. The changes implemented under the CCMM initiative will allow FMS to meet 

the evolving needs of agencies, ensure proper cash management, and maximize the efficiency of government 

financial operations. 

For more information about CCMM, contact Gregory Till, Director of Modernization Planning, at (202) 874-6935 

or Andrew Ganahl, Enterprise Architect, at (202) 874-6835. 

Collections and Cash Management Modernization (CCMM) 

Page 2 

May 2008 
PFC Agency Meeting — April 2008 

Page 3 

May 2008 

The Philadelphia Financial Center (PFC) sponsored an Agency Meeting on April 23, 2008, at the Social Security 

Administration (SSA) Training Facility in Philadelphia, PA. The meeting provided agencies with insight on important 

program and policy changes that will have a significant impact on their financial management operations. There were 

more than 40 representatives from various Federal agencies in attendance at PFC’s first agency meeting of the fiscal 

year. 

Michael Norman from Government-wide Accounting (GWA) discussed the details and 

status of the GWA modernization project. He explained that the GWA modernization is a 

massive redesign of the Federal Government Central Accounting process that affects every 

Federal agency, domestic and foreign, and changes over 40 years of agency accounting 

practices. The redesign will eliminate monthly reconciliation by capturing all necessary 

data at the initial transaction and will have all accounting data available to agencies within 

24 hours. Michael discussed some of the recent successes of the project, such as providing 

agencies with the ability to classify IPAC transactions at the time they are initiated and 

piloting the inclusion of the Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) and Business Event Type 

Code (BETC) at the individual payment level. 

Gregory Till discussed the Collections and Cash Management Modernization (CCMM) 

initiative. CCMM is a Financial Management Service (FMS) initiative to streamline and 

modernize FMS’ and Treasury’s collections and cash management programs. Gregory 

detailed how FMS’ current collection and reporting processes will be streamlined through 

CCMM by eliminating redundant collection programs and consolidating deposit reporting 

functions. He also provided an overview of the Transaction Reporting System (TRS), which is being developed as a 

repository for all agency collection information. Charles Dixon from Federal Finance also addressed agency collections 

by presenting FMS’ holistic approach to working with agencies from a consultative standpoint to improve their cash 

management practices by using the most cost-effective collection methods available. 

The Internet Payment Platform (IPP) was presented by Teresa Ricoy from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (FRB). 

IPP is a free, Web-based payment information service provided by FMS that allows both agencies and their vendors to 

exchange billing, invoice, and remittance information electronically between the parties. FMS owns and manages the 

service, while the FRB is responsible for development, operations and maintenance. 

Keith Salter of the Postal Inspection Service discussed the pervasive crime of identity theft. Identity theft is a crime 

which affects not only the individual whose identity is stolen, but consumers at large. Identity theft occurs when one or 

more pieces of personally identifiable data is stolen, such as a social security number or date of birth. According to 

Keith, statistics have shown that most identity theft is committed electronically, with less than 2% of all identity theft 

related to the mail. Keith discussed how citizens can protect themselves 

against identity theft and shared what the Postal Inspection Service is doing to 

combat such crimes. 

During an open discussion segment, Matthew Helfrich discussed PFC’s 

interest in developing a Customer Advisory Board (CAB). The CAB will 

provide our customers with a venue to voice their concerns and provide 

feedback on FMS programs, policies, and procedures. The CAB will also play 

a pivotal role in customer education on upcoming FMS initiatives, such as 

GWA and CCMM, which will have a major impact on the way agencies 

conduct business with FMS. If your agency is interested in being a CAB 

member, please contact Lisa Andre at (215) 516-8142 or 

lisa.andre@fms.treas.gov. 

Michael Norman (FMS/GWA) 

Left to Right: Peter Moore (FMS/Federal 

Finance) & Teresa Ricoy (FRB) 
Most financial institutions have recently received inquiries from their customers about the status of their IRS 

tax return payments. Properly handling these inquiries on behalf of your customer not only facilitates good 

customer service, but also prevents many unnecessary Non-Receipt claims from being filed by the IRS. 

Because it is inevitable that certain customers will approach their financial institution about their IRS payment 

or other Federal benefit payment made by Direct Deposit, it is important that financial institution personnel are 

properly trained in locating payments for their customers, especially payments that are memo posted or posted 

prior to settlement date. Statistics captured by Treasury’s Financial Management Service (FMS) reveal that 

over 60% of all missing payments were posted to the financial institution when the recipient called to inquire 

about their payment. Thorough research of these payments by financial institutions will help to eliminate 

unnecessary Non-Receipt claims that must be processed by IRS and FMS. Financial institution employees 

should be aware of the various techniques and procedures utilized by their institution to post payments in order 

to aptly assist their customer with the status of their Direct Deposit payment. 

Below are the steps a financial institution should take before referring the recipients to the IRS, or another 

authorized Federal agency: 

• Determine if the payment was posted late 

• Determine if the payment was memo posted 

• Determine if the payment was posted early 

• Determine if a third party processor is used. If so, confirm the funds are available and notify the 

customer of the outcome 

• Determine if the payment was an exception item 

The financial institution should be aware that payments could have been posted incorrectly, posted manually, 

or returned to FMS due to incorrect banking information being used. In cases where the financial institution 

did not receive the payment for the recipient, the financial institution should ask the recipient the following 

questions: 

• Were there any changes to their banking information, such as account number or type of account? 

• Did they change financial institutions? 

• Did they verify entitlement for their payment with IRS, or the authorizing agency? 

If all efforts to locate the payment have failed, the financial institution should instruct the recipient to file a 

Non-Receipt claim with the IRS, or the appropriate Federal agency. 

Upon notification from the recipient that a payment has not been received, the authorizing agency will notify 

FMS. FMS will research the claim via Follow-Up Trace Request (FMS 150.1) or Initial Trace Request (FMS 

150.2) forms to determine the status of the payment. FMS will initiate contact with the financial institution by 

telephone or by mailing the FMS-150.1 or FMS 150.2 forms to the appropriate financial institution in an 

attempt to locate or resolve the non receipt claim. 

Where’s My Refund?: A Financial Institution’s Guide to 

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Non-Receipts 

Page 4 

May 2008 
The FMS 150.2 form is used to trace payments dated the current or previous month. Upon receipt of the FMS 

150.2, the financial institution should follow these steps: 

• Make all attempts to locate the payment 

• Credit the customers account if they have not done so already 

• Return the payment if for any reason the financial institution cannot credit the customer account 

• Use the customer’s copy of the FMS 150.2 form to notify the recipient of the status of the payment 

The FMS 150.1 form is used to trace payments with an issue date two months or older or as a follow-up notice 

for previous Non-Receipt claims. Upon receipt of the FMS 150.1, the financial institution should follow these 

steps: 

• Make all attempts to locate the payment 

• Credit the customers account if they have not done so 

• Return the payment if for any reason the financial institution cannot credit the customers account 

• Complete the Financial Institution Action section within three (3) business days of the receipt of the 

FMS 

 150.1 

• Return the Disbursing Office Copy to the FMS office identified on the form 

• Use the Customer’s Copy to notify the recipient of the status of the payment 

The financial institution must respond to FMS within three (3) days by completing and returning the FMS 

150.1 form to the Regional Financial Center indicated on the form. If no reply is received from the financial 

institution, FMS will call the financial institution and pursue the case until it is resolved. If FMS cannot 

resolve the case by either method, a letter will be sent to the Vice President of the financial institution 

requesting assistance. 

For more information, please refer to Chapter 3 (Non-Receipts) and Chapter 4 (Returns) of the Green Book at 

www.fms.treas.gov/greenbook. For additional information or specific questions, please feel free to contact 

Lisa Andre, Accredited ACH Professional (AAP) at (215) 516-8142 or via email at 

Lisa.Andre@fms.treas.gov. 

Where’s my Refund? (Continued) 

Page 5 

May 2008 

The Philadelphia Financial Center Newsletter entitled PFC 

Journal is presented by the Customer Service Branch and 

addresses a variety of topics of interest to individuals in the 

Federal financial community.

The PFC Journal is available exclusively on our website. 

www.fms.treas.gov/pfc

P.O. Box 51317 

Philadelphia, PA 19115-6317 

Phone: 215-516-8000 

Fax: 215-516-8010