FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Treasury Deputy Secretary Stuart E. Eizenstat announced today the launch of two new and dynamic electronic initiatives which will make government more accessible and encourage growth of the digital economy.

The Treasury Department is helping to develop industry standards and different methods of conducting e-business to ensure that movement of funds and purchase of securities are done in the most safe, secure and efficient ways," said Deputy Secretary Eizenstat. "Technology has been critical to America's economic prosperity and we want to create a system which allows technology to bring dynamic benefits to our economy."

One site, Pay.gov, which will be launched in the fall, will be a secure government-wide payment and collection portal with the potential to process 80 million transactions totaling $125 billion of dollars each year. The other, SLGSafe, will serve approximately 400 banks and their state and local government customers that have $160 billion invested in special securities designed to meet municipal finance needs.

Business applications including Stored Value Cards, Internet Credit Card Collections, Electronic Checks, Point-of-Sale Check Conversion, Electronic Cash, Internet Savings Bonds, Internet Bidding in Treasury Auctions, and State and Local Government Securities were demonstrated at the announcement.

Treasury's Financial Management Service's (FMS) Electronic Money Program Office, which has been testing new payment and collection technologies for several years, designed and developed the Pay.gov initiative. Federal agencies have shown a significant amount of interest in FMS e-money initiatives. FMS develops payment and collection tools using the Internet and card technology, digital signatures and biometrics to help federal agencies modernize their cash management activities.

Pay.gov is a critical part of Treasury's plan to create a 21st century fiscal operation for the U.S. government, and an important step in eliminating barriers to electronic commerce," said Treasury Deputy Secretary Eizenstat. "Pay.gov responds to consumers' increasing demand for electronic alternatives. Citizens will have the choice of interacting with their government by completing forms and applications, making payments, and submitting queries online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Businesses will also be able to use cutting edge e-commerce technologies in their dealings with the government."

Pay.gov will provide citizens, businesses, and federal agencies the option of processing transactions via the Internet such as government collection of fees, fines, sales, leases, donations, loans, and certain taxes, as well as related forms and documents. These transactions are currently processed through paper lockbox collections, Automated Clearing House (ACH) collection systems and over-the-counter.

Pay.gov will benefit the government by providing a government-wide central infrastructure for processing financial transactions over the Internet, avoiding a duplication of effort across multiple banks, contractors, and federal agencies. It will also reduce Treasury's collections costs, and eliminate paper processing at both the Treasury and the federal agencies. Furthermore, the new Internet portal will also allow Treasury to provide more timely and extensive accounting information to agencies, and will help agencies automate forms processing.

SLGSafe is a secure, e-commerce Internet site serving some 400 banks, and their state and local government customers who invest in State and Local Government Series Securities or SLGS. At SLGSafe, customers can subscribe for securities, make changes to their portfolio, redeem securities, and review financial reports. SLGSafe customers are identified by digital certificates issued by Public Debt. The 400 banks serve as trustees or agents for the state and local governments. The site went live December 1999. SLGSafe is being rolled out over the next three years. Now, some 10 trustee banks are live, and in recent weeks have accounted for nearly 20 percent of subscription volume.

According to Deputy Secretary Eizenstat, "With more than $550 million in securities issued through SLGSafe since December 1999, SLGSafe proves that creative application of technology can benefit state and local governments and Treasury."

SLGS securities are special non-marketable Treasury securities, with maturities ranging from one day to 40 years, issued to state and local government bodies to support the refunding of their tax-exempt financing. SLGS provide these government bodies a convenient way to comply with Internal Revenue Service rules related to municipal finance. State and local governments hold approximately $160 billion in SLGS.

Web sites Contact:

http://www.treas.gov Treas--Bill Buck (202) 622-2960

http://www.fms.treas.gov FMS--Alvina McHale (202) 874-6604

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov BPD--Pete Hollenbach (202) 692-3502