The NCUA is reminding credit unions that the U.S. Treasury Department is eliminating over-the-counter sales of U.S. Savings Bonds at the end of the year.
The Dec. 31 cutoff will end a tradition of the paper bonds that began in 1935, but bonds can still be purchased in electronic form from the TreasuryDirect website operated by the Bureau of Public Debt.
When it announced the change in July, the Treasury Department said it expected to save $120 million over the next five years. It also said there were 672 million paper bonds worth $181 billion outstanding as of June 30.
The NCUA’s letter this week advised credit unions to educate members about the change – which will allow them to purchase and manage their bonds in a TreasuryDirect account – and to continue redeeming paper bonds.
“As a trusted source of information about savings bonds, your credit union will likely receive questions about these changes,” said the NCUA letter issued this week by Chairman Debbie Matz.
