San Francisco Financial Center

Background

The San Francisco Financial Center (SFC) was established on April 1, 1935. Its primary mission was manually typing government checks. Since then, SFC's mission has evolved to the issue of millions of government payments via electronic funds transfer along with printing a much smaller number of checks using high speed printing and enclosing machines. SFC partners with the other Regional Financial Centers (Austin, Kansas City and Philadelphia), the Regional Operations Washington Office, Federal Reserve Banks, Federal Program Agencies, Financial Institutions and Payment Associations to enhance the electronic as well as paper financial efficiency of the United States. SFC has a vibrant history:

1935 - The Financial Management Service (formerly known as the U.S.           Treasury Bureau of Accounts) was opened in San Francisco.

1942 - Social Security benefit checks were first issued.

1943 - Machine readable punch card checks were introduced.

1950 - The model 9300 Addressograph machine was utilized, which allowed           the dollar amount to be punched into the check.

1962 - Checks were generated by computers.

1975 - Additional payments such as Veterans’ Education, Railroad           Retirement Benefits, Supplemental Security Income, Social Security,           and Tax Refunds became a part of SFC's workload.

1984 - The Claims, Payments and Reconciliation (CP& R) system was           introduced to automate and expedite the process of stop payments           and check cancellations. The Federal Reserve's FEDLINE system was           also first used to transmit same day large dollar payments.

1989 - A 6.2 earthquake shook the Bay Area on October 17th, causing           damage throughout the city; however, SFC remained open and           continued to issue payments.

1996 - The first administrative offset of an FMS-issued payment was           processed by SFC.

2004 - SFC moved to its new home in Emeryville to improve the efficiency           of the SFC operations, enhance security, and benefit from a           reduction in rent costs.

The San Francisco Financial Center continues to make strides to promote the efficiency of federal payments and collections and better serve its customer federal agencies and the American public.