Social Security Number Suppression in Federal ACH Payments Begins

October 27, 2010

The Department of the Treasury, Financial Management Service (FMS), values the importance of privacy and has robust security measures in place to protect the nation’s critical financial resources. Effective November 2010, Treasury will begin a phased-in strategy to suppress Social Security Numbers (SSN) in federal government Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments.

Daily Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is the first payment type in which the SSN will be suppressed. Implementation is scheduled to begin November 15 followed by monthly recurring SSI payments dated December 1. Additionally, federal salary, vendor and other miscellaneous payments will be impacted by the change from November 15 through April 2011.

Social Security Administration (SSA), Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), Veterans Administration (VA) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) daily and monthly recurring payment types will NOT be included in this phase. Implementation dates for these payment types will be announced at a later date.

In the "six record" (Entry detail record) FMS will place 'zeros' in positions 40 – 44, the last 4 digits of the SSN in positions 45 - 48, and the existing payment type specific information in positions 49 - 54. See examples below:

To ensure the timely processing of return transactions and notification of change entries it remains crucial for financial institutions to accurately populate data fields from the original entry (e.g., Original Effective Entry Date, Original Entry RTN, Original Entry Trace Number, Amount, and DFI Account Number).

By enforcing sound payment practices and contingency planning, Treasury continues working toward averting threats to critical financial operations of the government.

Please direct questions or inquiries to the Kansas City Financial Center at (816) 414-2100 or KFCHelpDesk@fms.treas.gov.