The NAVSUP FLC Norfolk Navy Cash Fleet Support Group completed a year-long effort to re-card the ships of the Atlantic Fleet to new Navy Cash Cards in October, as part of transferring responsibility for Navy Cash Cards from JPMorgan Chase to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (FRBB). 

According to Hugh Chin, the effort involved 57 ships in the command’s area of responsibility, with more than 45 thousand Sailors receiving new Navy Cash Cards. He says each ship required a five phase process that included:

1. Coordinating ship availability

2. Conduct an executive brief 30 to 60 days in advance

3. A scrub of the ship’s roster and the placing of a card order 60 days in advance

4. Complete on site re-carding

5. An update each Sailor’s profile and transmission of data to FRBB to complete account update

“Re-carding required a face-to-face process where the team had to confirm full dates of birth and obtain civilian emails from each Sailor in order to comply with federal regulation requirements,” Chin explained. “After a ship is re-carded the team had to update each member’s profile then transfer data to the Federal Reserve Bank for validation and completion of update to each member's account.”

He added that the process time varied from ship to ship, with a small ship taking two days on average and a large deck ship taking about four.

The Navy Cash card is a branded debit card that looks like a typical debit or check card. Navy Cash combines a chip-based electronic purse (stored-value function) with the traditional magnetic stripe (debit card and ATM function). The electronic purse replaces currency aboard ship.

The process allows Sailors to continue to have the capabilities of the Navy Cash Card, to now include the ability to receive an electronic receipt for each transaction off ship.  Additionally, Sailors will now be offered access to several thousand additional ATMs worldwide due to partnership with FRBB and PNC Bank.

Chin explained that approximately three years ago, JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) decided to leave the Navy Cash program. Since that announcement, the Navy Cash Team has been planning for the transition to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (FRBB), which will take over as the Treasury's overall operations manager for the Navy Cash program.  Additionally, PNC Bank (PNC) has been brought on board to take over as the open-loop provider for the MasterCard pre-paid debit feature on Navy Cash cards.

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