With the issuance of paper savings bonds going away Jan. 1, 2012, it sounds like banks will no longer take savings bonds orders for their customers. My understanding is they will need their own Treasury Direct online account. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to help elderly customers or ones without internet access? It's not just the ordering they will have to do but since it's all electronic, they would need to log on to manage their account. Will you make the internet available to them at your bank for this purpose?

Absolutely not, too much of a risk.

This informative sheet and FAQ put out by the FRB will assist your staff as well as a great handout for customers. http://www.frbservices.org/files/communications/pdf/treasury/071111_savings_bonds.pdf

IMO, purchasing savings bonds is now out of banks' hands. Elderly customers should be directed to family members to assist them or their local public library with internet access. Also, the 1-800 number included in the above document may help them.

Thanks for the handout. I hadn't seen that and had asked Treasury Direct for something like this (simple Q&A) and what the sent me I already had.

I take it from reading the document that although we will not sell Savings Bonds anymore, we are still responsible for redeeming those paper-based savings bonds that customers bring to us, for the forseeable future. Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct.

SHould we post lobby notices? I haven't been able to find anything about a notice.

I found the color flyer and the one-page handout on this site helpful. We posted in lobby and left a bunch on the counter for customers.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/savbond/otc/otcendtoolkit.htm

I also modified one of the monthly statement messages and put it in letter form and sent to the two customers for whom we do regular monthly savings bond purchases.

thank you so much for this!!!!