New Features Boost Treasury Direct Customer Convenience

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 4, 1997

The Bureau of the Public Debt today unveiled three new services for Treasury Direct customers. Now, Treasury Direct customers can pay for their securities electronically, reinvest by phone, and have Treasury sell their bills, notes, or bonds. The new “Direct to You” services are designed to make the popular Treasury Direct system even more convenient as a way for Americans to manage their investments in Treasury securities.

The three new “Direct to You” services are:

• Pay Direct allows existing customers to pay for their securities by authorizing Treasury to debit their bank account on the day the security is issued. Until now, investors had to pay for their securities when they submitted their tender. Pay Direct eliminates a trip to the bank for a cashier's or certified check for Treasury bill investors.
• Reinvest Direct allows customers to reinvest maturing securities by phone 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When investors get a reinvestment notice in the mail from Treasury, all they need to do is call 1-800-943-6864 on a touch-tone phone from anywhere in the U.S. and follow the step-by-step instructions.
• Sell Direct allows investors to sell their Treasury securities without first transferring them to a bank or government securities broker or dealer. All an investor needs to do is complete a simple form that authorizes the sale of the security and forward it to the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank which performs the service as Treasury's agent. The Chicago FRB will usually get three price quotes from dealers and will accept the highest bid. The service costs $34 for each security sold. Payment of the sale price minus the fee is made to the customer's financial institution account by Direct Deposit.

Public Debt is also replacing the six different forms used to purchase the various types of bills, notes, and bonds with a single tender form. Investors can use this new form to purchase any of the securities offered through Treasury Direct.

Richard L. Gregg, Commissioner of the Public Debt, called these new features, “A breakthrough in customer service. These new 'Direct to You' services make Treasury Direct an even more attractive way for Americans to invest in Treasury bills, notes, and bonds.”

Treasury Direct, a state-of-the-art book-entry system that became operational in 1986,allows Treasury to continue its long-standing policy of selling securities directly to the public while discontinuing the issuance of those securities in definitive (paper) form. All principal and interest payments are made electronically. Some 825,000 Americans hold $83 billion worth of securities in Treasury Direct.

Treasury Direct investors are served by 37 servicing sites located at Federal Reserve Banks and branches throughout the country as well as at Public Debt's Capital Area Servicing Center in Washington, D.C.

Current Treasury Direct customers will learn about these new services by mail from Public Debt. Investors and those interested in learning more about Treasury Direct and the new “Direct to You”features can get more information from Public Debt's website. In addition to information about the securities we offer, visitors to the site can order or download theforms they need, request Statements of Account, and check on Treasury auction results.