Foreign Reporting Requirements

Grants, Loans, Credits, and Contingent Liabilities Involving Foreigners (T/L 620)

Overview

Authority

The procedures prescribed by this chapter are required pursuant to Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 281.

Executive Order No. 10488 dated September 23, 1953, as amended, authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) to prescribe regulations for the administration and reporting of the purchase, custody, deposit, transfer, and sale of foreign currency by all executive departments and entities of the United States.

Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 3513, the Secretary of the Treasury shall prepare reports that will inform the President, Congress, and the public on the financial operations of the United States Government. The head of each executive entity shall give the Secretary reports and information on the financial conditions and operations of the entity the Secretary requires to prepare the reports.

Additional guidance can be found in TFM Volume I, Part 2, Chapter 4700

Scope and Applicability

This section prescribes the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) requirements relating to the accounting for and reporting of foreign currencies acquired either by purchase with dollars from commercial sources or received by Accountable Officers without purchase for dollars. Generally, these currencies are acquired under the provisions of foreign assistance or foreign agricultural development programs. The requirements of this chapter are applicable to all United States military branches, Treasury Disbursing Offices (TDOs), and Non-Treasury Disbursing Offices (NTDOs) having this type of activity.

Quarterly Reports

Agencies submit data via the Internet quarterly using the following seven reports:

Direct Long-Term Credits History (DH);

Guarantees and Insurance of Long-Term Credits History (GH);

Direct Long-Term Credits Status (DS);

Guarantees and Insurance of Long-Term Credits Status (GS);

Aggregated Data on the Status of Direct Short-Term Credits and Guarantees and Insurance of Short-Term Credits (AS);

Direct Long-Term Credits Scheduled Payments (DP); AND

Guarantees and Insurance of Long-Term Credits Scheduled Payments (GP).

Submit the quarterly reports, using the formats and instructions provided in Appendix 1, as follows:

DS, GS, and AS formats for all direct credits, insurance contracts, and guarantees.

DP and GP formats for scheduled payments on any new contracts committed during the previous quarter (or any changes in existing payment schedules).

DH and GH formats for transactions occurring during the respective calendar quarter (the applicable quarter will be determined from the reporting date). The Foreign Credit Reporting System (FCRS) will calculate calendar year historical data by summing the quarterly reports.

Upload the quarterly reports in the prescribed formats via the FCRS File Upload module, Upload Agency Files screen.

The quarterly reports are due on or before the due date. The due date is 45 days after the quarter-end reporting date. If the due date falls on a U.S. national holiday or weekend, the next business day is the due date. The data will be loaded into the FCRS within 3 workdays after the Request to Move Uploaded Files into Staging.Application.

Agencies must complete the quarterly data editing and approval process in the FCRS within 2 weeks after receiving notification that the reporting period data are available for editing via notification on the FCRS File Upload module, Batch Statistics screen. Agency personnel should follow the instructions in the "Foreign Credit Reporting System (FCRS) Web Site Overview and Data Editing Guide for Agency Users." Agencies may request additional time beyond the 2 weeks, if needed.

Submitting Previously Unreported Information

Agencies that have not reported on loans, guarantees, or insurance contracts previously, should submit information for the current quarter as indicated above in Section 4525. In addition, status (DS and GS) and history (DH and GH) reports for the previous 5 years should be reported separately. Contact the FCRS Data Administrator (see the Contacts page) for instructions.

Entering Data

Provide data as ASCII characters with right-justified integers in all fields except dates, interest rates, calendar years, country codes, names of borrowers, percentages, program codes, agency identification numbers, and Treasury transaction numbers.

Agencies unable to provide ASCII formatted files may substitute Comma Separated Values (CSV) files in the proper formats and field lengths. If submitting the optional CSV format, the character positioning is unnecessary; however, the field length is critical. Fields must be separated by commas and string values must be enclosed in double quotes (for example, "MyValue").

Agencies must use the specified formats to support the system, to allow timely completion of agency data editing, and to complete the reports. In addition, they must verify that the ASCII data are correctly positioned and complete using an editor.

Agencies must retain the underlying "raw" data and be prepared to make this data available to OMB or Treasury, if requested.

Amounts

Report amounts on a cash basis rather than an accrual basis, in accord with the nature of the item, per the following conventions:

Use unsigned positive integers without comma separators or decimal points (for example, no "," or "." symbols in amount fields); if negative, use a leading minus sign.

Do not use a currency symbol (for example, no "$" symbol); AND

Round the amount to the nearest whole U.S. dollar or dollar equivalent.

Dates

Enter dates numerically in century, year, month, and day sequence. For example, "20020331" represents March 31, 2002.

Interest Rates

Enter interest rates as real numbers with 2 integer digits, a period, and 3 decimal digits. For example, report 6 1/2 percent as "06.500".

Calendar Year

Agencies no longer need to enter the calendar year. This information is calculated from the Reporting Date on the DH and GH files.

Country Codes

Use the appropriate 2- or 3-character country codes taken from the list in Appendix 2.3 This information, and all other baseline information, is accepted initially and changed only from the status reports DS and GS.

3The codes are based on Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS PUB) 10-4, Countries, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty, and Their Principal Administrative Divisions, as amended by FIPS PUB 10-4 Change Notices; Department of State, Office of the Geographer, Guidance Bulletins, and information from the Office of the Geographer. Certain codes have been added to alleviate unusual reporting problems. (See www.state.gov/www/regions/independent_states.html, www.state.gov/www/regions/dependencies.html, http://www.state.gov/countries.)

Borrower Name

Report the borrower name in its entirety if possible. However, because of space limitations, standard abbreviations and truncations are acceptable.

Percentages

Report percentages as real numbers to the nearest tenth of a percent. Include the decimal point to separate decimal values. For example, report 95.5 percent as "95.5"; report 80 percent as "80.0".

Program Codes

Use the appropriate program codes from the list of program names and codes in Appendix 3. This information is accepted initially and changed only from the status reports DS and GS.

Agency Identification Number

Report the agency identification number that the agency assigned to the loan, guarantee, or insurance agreement. The agency must use this number consistently in future reports. This information is critical to matching the history DH and GH and scheduled payments DP and GP records with the applicable status record DS and GS reports in order to create a complete contract.

Treasury Transaction Number

Report the Treasury transaction number that the agency assigned to identify the loan, guarantee, or insurance agreement for OECD CRS purposes. The Treasury transaction number consists of a 2-digit numeric commitment-year identifier, a sequential 4-digit numeric identifier, and a 2-character alphanumeric extension, if needed. Verify that leading zeros appear in the Treasury transaction number for credits committed in calendar year 2000 and beyond. For example, "021234" indicates a commitment in calendar year 2002 (the leading zero requires a text field). Agencies must maintain Treasury transaction numbers used on records submitted as of December 31, 1994, as long as there is any activity related to the particular loan, guarantee, or insurance agreement, including claims outstanding. For agencies reporting Officially Supported Export Credit transactions directly to the OECD or Berne Union on Form 1 C, the first 6 digits of the Treasury transaction number must coincide with the CRS identification number used. Agencies must use the assigned Treasury transaction number consistently in future reports as long as there is any activity related to the particular loan, guarantee, or insurance agreement, including claims outstanding. This information is accepted initially only from the status reports DS and GS.

FCRS Edits

The FCRS runs edits on individual records under the following "reasonableness" assumptions. In each status record:

The cumulative amount of principal committed should equal the sum of the cumulative amounts of principal canceled, undisbursed, and disbursed for any direct credit or guaranteed loan.

The cumulative amount of principal disbursed should equal the sum of the cumulative amounts of principal outstanding, repaid, rescheduled, and reduced for any direct credit or guaranteed loan.

Amounts in arrears (or outstanding) 1 day or more should be greater than or equal to the equivalent amount in arrears (or outstanding) 90 days or more.

Principal in arrears 1 day or more should not exceed principal outstanding on any direct credit.

For any direct credit or guaranteed loan:

The sum of historical amounts in a given category should not exceed the cumulative amounts in that category on the status record.

The historical amounts in a given category during the preceding quarter should not exceed 10 percent of the difference between the cumulative amounts in that category on the status records for the current and preceding quarters.

The sum of scheduled principal repayments in the projection records should not exceed the sum of principal undisbursed plus principal outstanding (minus principal in arrears 1 day or more on direct credits) on the status record.

The sum of scheduled principal repayments in the projection records should not be less than the amount of principal outstanding (minus principal in arrears 1 day or more on direct credits) in the status record.

If there are valid reasons for not applying the above tests to specific records, provide detailed explanations of these reasons in a separate correspondence.

Note: Do not omit any relevant credits, guarantees, or insurance contracts. If the agency has reported contracts, it must close out the contracts before removing them from the inventory of active records for the agency.

Filenames

Compose filenames using the agency identifier, the 2-digit type code indicated in the format, a 4-digit reporting date, and the text extension. For example, the Export-Import Bank would name the direct credit history file as of December 31, 2002, as "EDH0212.txt".

Foreign Currency Accounting and Reporting

Quarterly Reports of Accountable Officers

Within 45 calendar days after the close of each quarter, Accountable Officers will submit to Treasury (see Contacts) consolidated quarterly reports (commonly referred to as International Balance of Payments Report) stating the amounts (cumulative for the FY through the end of the reporting quarter) of foreign currencies purchased with dollars from sources outside the U.S. Government. The amounts reported will include acquisitions of currencies through accommodation exchange transactions as well as purchases from banks and other exchange dealers. The report will be in the form of a listing under the following headings: "Country of Currency," "Monetary Unit," "Number of Units Purchased," "Total Dollar Outlay," and "Memorandum Dollar Outlay for Accommodation Exchange."

Supplementary to the consolidated reports, Accountable Officers will also attach reports at the end of each quarter stating the balances of foreign currencies on hand under the dollar accountability, as well as reports of foreign currency received and credited directly to miscellaneous receipt accounts. These currencies are received for such things as fees and services and are immediately purchased with appropriated funds for entities' operating needs. Repayments to appropriations and receipts to foreign transaction X7000 accounts are excluded. Each report will be in the form of a listing under the following headings: "Country of Currency," "Monetary Unit," "Number of Units," "Dollar Equivalent," and "Exchange Rate."

A copy of all reports submitted to Treasury should also be submitted simultaneously to the Bureau of Economic Analysis/Balance of Payments Division, BE-58/4600 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD 20746.

Reconciling Cash and Investments Held Outside of the U.S. Treasury

Each entity must do the following:

Reconcile all transactions involving cash and investments held outside of the U.S. Treasury on a periodic basis, but no less frequently than quarterly, and

Develop policies, systems, and operating procedures that ensure cash and investment activity reported on the entity's ATB and Statements of Transactions reported to Treasury, as applicable, reconcile with the entity's accounting records and related statements and reports received from financial institutions.

Fiscal Service will report to the Office of the Fiscal Assistant Secretary of Treasury all discrepancies disclosed from periodic reviews and analysis of entities' reported cash and investments held outside of the U.S. Treasury.

Federal Financial Management Standards

Functions and Activities

Financial Statement Preparation (FFM.110.020)

Prepare financial statements and footnotes required by OMB Circular A-136; Verify financial statements and other required financial reports can be traced to general ledger account balances and are compiled in accordance with the USSGL Crosswalks; Determine and record eliminations required to generate consolidated financial statements; Includes generating variance analyses for timely submissions, balance sheet, statement of net cost, statement of changes in net position, statement of budgetary resources, reconciling SF-133 to the statement of budgetary resources, statement of custodial activity, statement of social insurance, statement of changes in social insurance amounts, required supplementary information, and required supplementary stewardship information, as applicable.

Federal Financial Management System Requirements (FFMSR)

Providing GL Information (FFMSR 1.3.1)

Provide GL information for consolidated government-wide reporting as specified in the TFM and consistent with guidelines in the FASAB Handbook as well as OMB Circular No. A-136.

Provide GL information for agency-specific financial reports consistent with OMB Circular No. A-136 and FASAB Handbook.

Verifying Traceability (FFMSR 2.3.2)

Verify that GL account balances can be traced to aggregated or discrete transactions in agency programmatic systems and that the aggregated or discrete transactions can be traced to the point of entry and source documents consistent with the TFM.

Verify that financial statements and other required financial and budget reports can be traced to GL account balances as required by OMB Circular No. A-123 and as specified in the TFM.

Use Cases

Record to Report

Treasury Financial Manual (TFM)

TFM Volume I Part 2 Chapter 3200; Foreign Currency Accounting and Reporting

TFM Volume I Part 2 Chapter 3400; Accounting for and Reporting on Cash and Investments Held Outside of the U.S. Treasury

TFM Volume I Part 2 Chapter 4500; Grants, Loans, Credits, and Contingent Liabilities Involving Foreigners (T/L 620)

Contact Information

Contact Details

Direct inquiries concerning Foreign Currency to:

Funds Management Division
Room 102
Bureau of the Fiscal Service

PO Box 1328
Parkersburg, WV 26106-1328

FCReports@fiscal.treasury.gov

Direct inquiries concerning the ATB and GTAS to:

Financial Reports and Advisory Division
Room 3602A
Bureau of the Fiscal Service

PO Box 1328
Parkersburg, WV 26106-1328

gtas.teams@fiscal.treasury.gov

ATB and GTAS Contact List

Direct inquiries concerning USSGL reporting to:

Financial Reports and Advisory Division
Room 3602A
Bureau of the Fiscal Service

PO Box 1328
Parkersburg, WV 26106-1328

304-480-5129

Fax: 304-480-5176

USSGL Contact Link

Direct inquiries concerning foreign grants, loans, and contingent liabilities to:

Office of International Debt Policy
Office of International Affairs
Department of the Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.
Washington, DC 20220

202-622-7825

In lieu of sending quarterly reports via e-mail to the following addresses, access to verified agency data will be provided via the Foreign Credit Reporting System to:

Office of International Debt Policy, FCRS Data Administrator

bertram.wolfe@do.treas.gov

U.S. Department of Commerce/BEA, BE-58

patricia.mosley@bea.doc.gov

U.S. Agency for International Development, Policy and Program Coordination

wmccormick@usaid.gov