Austin Financial Center

Background

The History of Austin Financial Center (AFC)

Austin Financial Center (AFC) was established in 1969 as a Regional Financial Center (RFC) for the Financial Management Service (FMS), a bureau of the Department of the Treasury. AFC provides payment services for approximately eighty federal agency sites and is responsible for all Federal agencies within our established geographical region, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. AFC in one of four RFCs, the others being Kansas Financial Center (KFC), San Francisco Financial Center (SFC), and Philadelphia Financial Center (PFC).

AFC is the primary business partner for the Department of Veterans Affairs and their world-wide responsibilities. The Center is also the primary point for processing all Internal Revenue Service Tax Refunds and processing of vendor/miscellaneous payment for approximately eighty federal program agencies. The AFC takes pride in providing quality service and products daily to all of our agency customers within the continental U.S. and to many payment recipients' world wide.

AFC provides the following services:

• Issue payments, by check and electronic funds transfer (EFT), on behalf of Federal agencies to recipients
• Process claims and inquiries related to EFT payments and returned, lost, non-entitled or stolen Government checks
• Implement and monitor cash/credit management, debt collection and accounting programs for Federal agencies
• Serve as a financial consultant and advisor to Federal, State, and local governments, the financial community, and the Federal Reserve System to ensure that FMS initiatives are carried out in a practical, efficient, and effective manner
• Provide training on existing and new programs and initiatives through workshops or seminars that are designed to meet the needs of our customers.

The AFC disburses over 170 million payments, totaling $421 billion annually. The types of payments processed include veterans' benefits, federal salary, vendor payments, tax refunds, and miscellaneous payments. Services are provided utilizing various applications and programs. The Center is the primary business operations manager for:

• Financial Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) programs such as CTX payments
• Social Security cycle payments
• Tax refunds data processing and claims processing
• Debt Collection/Treasury Offset Program offset
• Automated benefit/vendor enrollment
• Department of Veterans Affairs payments of Compensation & Pension, Education, Insurance, Fees and Vendor
• Economic Stimulus Payments

Additional projects performed during 2008 included AFC

• Partnering with other FMS departments to modernize and consolidate more than thirty Department of Treasury payment applications into one efficient streamlined system. The Payment Application and Modernization (PAM) effort will be revolutionary in helping our agency's increase the timeliness and efficiency of payments.
• Being proactive and quickly responding to the President's Economic Stimulus Payment processing requirement. During 2008, AFC made 116,410,949 payments totaling $94,506,134,157.00.
• Replacing thirty year old check printing equipment with modern state of the art equipment that not only prints, but completes many other functions previously done either by hand or by other aging equipment. The KERN 3500 Enclosing System has brought payment operations into the 21st Century and enhanced our customer support for total accountability of payments from beginning receipt of customer files to delivery of payment.

Vision

FMS and AFC are built on the ideology that Federal agencies seek to strengthen their financial management and to expand the use of electronic commerce technologies.

FMS through the efforts and operations within AFC provides such services. AFC serves its agency customers as a trusted ally, providing them with the loyalty of another government agency and resource as well as the assistance of an outside vendor. We ensure our customer agencies have the knowledge and the support they need to run their operations and to support their customers with maximum efficiency, reliability and effectiveness. Many of our products and services are mission critical and are aligned with congressional and presidential mandates, so we give our customer agencies the assurance that we will be there when they need us.

Our Mission

The Austin Financial Center Is Ever Vigilant In Serving the Public Trust by Advancing All Facets of Payment Services Our Goals

• Improve our Services through Technology
• Continually Improve our Quality and Production
• Prepare our Workforce for the Future
• Strengthen our Internal and External Communication

Core Values

• Information Sharing
• Inclusion
• Individual Respect
• Integrity
• Informality
• Innovation