This chapter prescribes instructions for federal entities to deposit domestic checks and cash.

This guidance is being issued to ensure federal entities:

•  Make timely deposits to fund the federal government,
• Adhere to proper procedures for making OTC deposits, and
• Use efficient collection solutions. 

12 U.S.C 90, 265-266, 1767, 1789a, and 31 U.S.C 3301-3303, 3720.

For terms and definitions related to this chapter, please view the TFX Glossary.

2025.10—All Electronic Collections Guidance (General)

Executive Order 14247 (EO), Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account (90 FR 14001, March 25, 2025) requires the phase out of paper check collections and the transition to electronic funds transfer (EFT) for all federal collections, with limited exceptions, to increase efficiency and enhance the security of federal payments. The EO also requires the Secretary of the Treasury to review, and, as appropriate, revise procedures for granting limited exceptions where electronic collection methods are not feasible. 

Federal agencies that collect payments must ensure that their forms, online enrollment processes, and any appropriate procedures reflect the EFT requirement. Moreover, federal agencies should inform payors of the requirement to pay their obligations to the federal government electronically and provide them with information needed to make electronic payments in the future. 

2025.20—Exceptions and Waivers From Electronic Collections Requirements

Federal agencies may apply to Fiscal Service to continue to receive federal collections by check. Federal agencies may request a waiver to continue accepting check collections and are encouraged to limit waiver requests to cover limited circumstances outlined in EO 14247. Waiver requests should follow the requirements outlined in Section 2025.30.

2025.30—Exception/Waiver Request Process

Federal agencies may apply to Fiscal Service to continue to receive federal collections by check through any method (e.g., OTCnet, ECP, or lockbox). Individual waivers will be managed by the responsible federal agency, not Fiscal Service. To apply for the waiver, the agency must submit a request to EO14247@fiscal.treasury.gov. The waiver request must provide the following information: 

• The agency’s Fiscal Year 2024 collections data, including as appropriate:
  • Lockbox number,
  • Number of checks collected, and
  • Transaction dollar volume.
• If the agency deposits via OTCnet:
  • Treasury’s General Account Financial Institution name, and
  • Depositing branch location.
• Check volume and dollar volume projections for the next Fiscal Year.
• Requested expiration date for the waiver. [If a permanent exception is requested, no end date is expected].
• Agency point of contact (POC), name, title, business email address, and business phone number.

Fiscal Service reserves the right to request additional information to adjudicate waiver requests.

Federal entities should only request a waiver in limited circumstances in order to reach compliance with EO 14247. Fiscal Service will provide the federal agency a determination on the waiver request within 60 calendar days of the request and may reach out to the federal entity point of contact (POC) if clarification is needed. Federal agencies are entitled to make receive payments by check during the pendency of the waiver request process.

Waivers will generally be granted to a period not to exceed one year. For any waiver that is still in effect one year after Fiscal Service’s approval, the federal agency must submit a new waiver request. Renewal requests must be emailed to Fiscal Service at EO14247@fiscal.treasury.gov at least 30 days before the expiration of the one-year period.

Fiscal Service reserves the right to nullify a waiver if the federal agency continues to receive an unusually large number or proportion of check collections.

Any waiver-related questions may be directed to Fiscal Service at the following email:

EO14247@fiscal.treasury.gov.

Federal entities may decide not to accept payments made in cash. Before adopting a no-cash policy, a federal entity should decide that the policy will be more beneficial than not to the operation of the program generating the payments. Factors that a federal entity must consider when making its determination include:

• Federal entity’s statutory and regulatory authorities,
• Costs and benefits associated with implementing the policy,
• Programmatic or economic reasons for adopting the policy,
• Efficiencies to be gained by adopting the policy, and
• Anticipated impact of the policy on the federal entity’s constituents.

If, after examining these factors, a federal entity determines that it is more beneficial than not to adopt a no-cash policy, Fiscal Service considers such a decision to be consistent with Treasury’s move to an all-electronic Treasury, as well as the purposes of federal cash-management statutes.

2025.50—Funds Received for Another Federal Entity 

If a federal entity receives funds that must be deposited under another ALC, it must:

• Deposit the funds under its own ALC,
• Classify the transaction to its budget clearing account F3875, and
• Intra-Governmental Payment and Collection funds to the ALC for which the funds were deposited.

2030.10—Deposit Reporting

The federal entity must prepare an OTCnet Deposit Ticket and itemize the deposit in OTCnet. The federal entity must provide the make-up of the deposit content (i.e., cash, coin, check) and print and forward the same to the financial institution along with the check or cash deposit. The deposit must reach the financial institution by its designated cut-off time. When creating an OTCnet Deposit Ticket, the federal entity must enter the voucher date as the date the deposit will reach the financial institution prior to the cutoff time. Federal entities can post date vouchers up to 5 days to allow for time if using couriers or mail-in TGA (MITGA). Entities must follow depositing frequencies per Section 2030.30- Frequency of Deposits. 

Federal entities should make copies or digital images of all checks. Copies/images should be safeguarded and retained based on the federal entity’s internal policies. Treasury recommends that federal entities retain these copies or images for up to 10 business days, which will enable federal entities to recreate deposits if checks are ever lost or stolen.

2030.20—Designated FIs for TGA Deposits

Federal entities must deposit funds at their designated financial institution. Federal entities must hand-deliver the deposits to their designated financial institution or hire a courier or armored car service to make scheduled deliveries. Except as provided in *Section 2040.30-Mail-In Treasury General Account (MITGA), deposits must not be mailed to a financial institution, nor will ACH or Fedwire deposit activity be accepted. Federal entities cannot make deposits at a Federal Reserve Bank.

[Note: For ACH or Fedwire deposits, federal entities should refer to TFM Volume I, Part 5, Chapter 7500, “Fedwire and Automated Clearing House (ACH) Credit Deposits to the Account of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service”.]

Federal entities must request permission from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank (FRB St. Louis) to establish or change their financial institution. See the Contacts section for more information.

To establish or change a financial institution, the following information will need to be provided to FRB St. Louis:

• Name of the federal entity,
• OTCnet endpoint name,
• Agency location code (ALC),
• Name, mailing address, phone number, and address of the local federal entity contact,
• Name and location of the federal entity’s current financial institution,
• Time and way the federal entity makes deposits with the current financial institution,
• Name and location of the proposed financial institution,
• Name and phone number of a contact person at the proposed financial institution,
• Total dollar amount deposited monthly,
• Total number of checks deposited monthly,
• Dollar amounts and number of Treasury checks deposited monthly,
• Amount of cash deposited monthly, and
• A brief justification statement.

After the appropriate arrangements have been made, FRB St. Louis will notify the requesting federal entity that the setup is complete.

[Note: The requested financial institution has 10 business days from the date of receipt of the federal entity profile sheet to respond to the request. Federal entities requesting a financial institution need to provide FRB St. Louis with a 30-day notice prior to the federal entity’s first deposit.]

2030.30—Frequency of Deposits

Federal entity depositors must limit deposits to one per day. Federal entities must make deposits for credit to the U.S. Treasury's account without delay following the procedures below:

• Coordinate processing schedules that allow deposits to reach the financial institution before that financial institution's designated cut-off time,
• Federal entities must deposit receipts totaling $5,000 or more on the same day received prior to depositary cutoff time. Deposits will be made as late as possible prior to the specified cutoff time to maximize daily deposit amounts. Collections totaling less than $5,000 may be accumulated and deposited when the total reaches $5,000. However, deposits must be made by Thursday of each week, regardless of the amount accumulated, and
• If using Check Capture, the federal entity must scan checks daily even if the checks total less than $5,000.

2030.40—Reporting Large Deposits

Federal entities must report daily aggregate deposits (excluding Treasury checks) of $50 million or more to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s Cash Reporting Branch. See "Cash Forecasting Requirements" chapter at TFM Volume I, Part 6, Chapter 8500, section 8530, for instructions. However, federal entities must not accept any check written for more than $99,999,999.99, as the Federal Reserve Banks will not process checks over that amount. See Federal Reserve Banks Operating Circular 3, “Collection of Cash Items and Returned Checks,” section 3.3.

2030.50—Counterfeit Currency

Financial institutions must surrender to the Secret Service any suspected counterfeit currency deposited to Treasury's General Account. In such cases, the federal entity will receive from the financial institution a photocopy of the Secret Service Form 1604: Counterfeit Note Report, and/or any other documentation that accompanied the surrendered currency. At that point, the federal entity must contact the Secret Service to find out if the surrendered currency was determined to be counterfeit. The federal entity must ensure that the financial institution processes an OTCnet Deposit Ticket for surrendered currency that the Secret Service determines is not counterfeit. See the Contacts section for more information.

2035.10—Record of Checks Received

Federal agencies receiving checks must process them through OTCnet Check Capture, Mobile Check Capture, or the Electronic Check Processing (ECP) System. If using Check Capture, federal entity depositors are not required to follow the procedure to keep records of checks as those checks received and delivered to a Treasury General Account (TGA) bank. For checks received and delivered to a TGA bank, federal entity depositors must keep records of these checks, including the following information:

• Amount,
• Name of the drawer,
• Name of the person from whom received (if other than the drawer),
• Bank on which drawn,
• Date drawn,
• Check number (if cashier's check or similar item),
• Checking account symbol and serial number (if drawn on Treasury), and
• Serial number (if postal money order).

If a check is lost, mutilated, or destroyed, refer to the instructions in TFM Volume I, Part 5, Chapter 5000, Section 5035 (Uncollected, Lost, Destroyed, and Mutilated Checks).

2035.20—Depositors' Endorsement on Checks Deposited at a Financial Institution

Depositors' endorsements on checks deposited at financial institutions for credit to the Treasury's account must, at a minimum, include:

• The agency location code (ALC), and
• The words “For credit to the U.S. Treasury".

Depositors must show the same ALC as shown on the OTCnet Deposit Ticket in the endorsement on checks deposited at a financial institution.

Depositors are not required to endorse checks processed through OTCnet Check Capture or Mobile Check Capture

Fiscal Service is committed to maximizing electronic revenue collection options to ensure timely deposits to fund the federal government. Federal entities should utilize OTCnet Check Capture and/or Mobile Check Capture for all checks received. These solutions accelerate the deposit processing, and the deposit of funds into the Treasury’s account. 

2040.10—Check Capture

Federal entities must process checks via OTCnet Check Capture or Mobile Check Capture. The following items cannot be processed through Check Capture: 

• Foreign items drawn on non-US financial institutions (i.e., foreign banks), and
• Savings Bonds.

[Note: Since these items are not deposited at the federal entity’s financial institution, there is no need to endorse the back of the check.]

Daily deposits must be received by 9:30 PM ET for next-day settlement.

After being scanned, Treasury recommends retaining physical checks for up to 5 business days to ensure that there are no problems with file transmission, image quality, and processing of the checks. Checks should be safeguarded prior to destruction, and shredding is the method by which checks should be destroyed.

Section 2040.20—Seized Currency Collection 

The Seized Currency Collection Network (SCCN) provides a method for law enforcement federal entities to deposit funds that they receive from seizures. Federal entities can use the SCCN for depositing seized currency from criminal activities as follows: 

• Agents must call the nearest cash vault customer service in advance to schedule a seized currency deposit count,
• Seized currency only accepts US cash, no US coins or foreign currency,
• Seized currency will be counted at a vendor vault only,
• Law enforcement agents are allowed to bring firearms into vault facilities,
• Agents verify the count and sign the deposit slip after the count has been validated,
• Federal entities will be given customized pre-printed deposit slips,
• Any deposit discrepancies will be handled by the financial agent and forwarded to Treasury, and
• Treasury will oversee all meetings with federal entities regarding seized currency issues and concerns.

2040.30—Mail-In Treasury General Account (MITGA)

The MITGA Program was developed to provide federal entities with an alternative to make TGA deposits when access to a local FI is unavailable. Federal entities that wish to use MITGA must contact FRB St. Louis to obtain an agency profile sheet, which must be filled out and returned to FRB St. Louis. The agency profile sheet is sent to the commercial bank administrator of the MITGA program. The MITGA commercial bank will send the federal entity instructions for sending deposits through the U.S. Postal Service. The federal entity will update its profile in OTCnet with the MITGA commercial bank’s routing and transit number and the account number. The federal entity will process a deposit in OTCnet and send the deposit to the MITGA commercial bank for confirmation.

Postage, registration, and other expenses incurred in mailing deposits may not be deducted from the amount of the deposit.

Section 2040.40—Emergency Procedures

The Contingency Mail-In Treasury General Account (CMITGA) program was developed to provide federal entities a temporary contingency solution to their standard OTCnet deposit reporting process. This contingency is used in the event the federal entity’s designated financial institution is temporarily unable to accept deposits for any reason, including (but not limited to) the following reasons:

• Will not open for business,
• Will be delayed in opening,
• Will have limited hours of operation, and
• Is affected by an environmental limitation that prevents the physical delivery of the federal deposits.

Contact the OTCnet Customer Service Team at 866-945-7920 and notify the customer service representative that your federal entity intends to use the CMITGA program. This notification will ensure that the federal entity is set up properly in the OTCnet application prior to mailing deposits to the CMITGA commercial bank for contingency purposes. Once the CMITGA commercial bank receives a mailed deposit from the federal entity, the CMITGA commercial bank will confirm it in OTCnet.

Additionally, when temporarily switching to the CMITGA process, the affected federal entity should email their federal entity location name, address and ALC to govlbxcustsvc@usbank.com.

Direct inquiries concerning this chapter to:

Bureau of the Fiscal Service
Revenue Collections Management
Over the Counter Division (OTCD)
3201 Pennsy Drive, Building E
Landover, MD 20785
Email: TGAops@fiscal.treasury.gov

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
OTC Support Team Telephone: 866-771-1842
Email: stls.tga.support@stls.frb.org

Direct inquiries concerning counterfeit currency to:

Secret Service
U.S. Currency