The Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians is continually looking for ways to improve services to Individual Indian Monies trust beneficiaries. As part of these efforts, OST is rolling out a pilot debit card program that will enable funds to be disbursed into debit card accounts as of January 2008. 

They are launching the pilot program in the states of Arizona, Oklahoma and Washington. OST has partnered with the U.S Department of Treasury and JP Morgan Chase Bank to offer the program.

A debit card enables IIM account holders without bank accounts to receive their trust funds electronically. It is an additional option for account holders with bank accounts, who can already receive funds by direct deposit.

Besides the safe and fast receipt of funds from a trust account, a debit card allows the holder to do the following:

• make cash withdrawals at ATMs nationwide
• use the card anywhere MasterCard^® is accepted
• get cash back from the debit card account during point-of-sale purchases
• eliminate fees and the inconvenience associated with cashing checks

Each debit card holder will receive a monthly debit card account statement from Chase Bank. There are no fees for basic services.

In the summer of 2008, OST will evaluate the effectiveness of the debit card program before expanding it to account holders nationwide.

A brochure and other information about the debit card program is available on the OST Web site (www.doi.gov/ost/iim/debit.html).