FDIC Expands Hispanic Outreach On Financial Education
The FDIC is expanding its efforts to enhance money management skills in Hispanic communities, including the launch of a Spanish advertising campaign to promote the Money Smart financial education program in key locations across the United States. In a related development, the FDIC has been asked to serve on a new partnership on Hispanic financial education announced by President Bush.

Today, nearly 40 million Hispanics reside in the United States, and many of them are attempting to function in our society without a banking account and without a good understanding of how to handle their finances, said FDIC Chairman Donald E. Powell in announcing the new media campaign in June. “Without this knowledge,” he said, “they are deprived of the dream of building wealth or buying a home. Financial education holds the key to financial independence, and we can help."

The following is an overview of what the FDIC is doing to help or encourage Hispanic Americans to save for their future, avoid high-cost loans or money transfer services, and otherwise be smart money managers.

The Hispanic Media Campaign: The summer-long Spanish media campaign promotes the use of the FDIC's free Money Smart program in print and radio advertisements in Hispanic communities in 14 key locations: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, McAllen (TX), Miami, New York, Puerto Rico, San Antonio and Washington, DC. The ads focus on the importance of financial education in situations such as saving money to pay for a child’s education and to buy a home. They also encourage consumers to consider taking a Spanish-language Money Smart class in their area, and for more information the ads refer people to a special toll-free Spanish-language help line (1-877-449-6629) and to the FDIC's new Spanish Web page (www.fdic.gov/quicklinks/spanish.html), which also provides other educational materials.

The FDIC's Hispanic outreach advertising campaign focuses on the importance of financial education in real-life situations. This print ad focuses on the fact that some married couples want to own a home but are held back by fears of applying for a mortgage loan.

The FDIC also is working with national Hispanic organizations, financial institutions, community groups and colleges and universities to promote the media campaign. To date, 38 organizations in the 14 media markets also have agreed to teach more than 270 Money Smart classes in Spanish.

“With the launch of the new advertising campaign, the FDIC is taking yet another major step toward providing high-quality, no-cost educational opportunities in money management to our Hispanic communities,” stated Lee Bowman, the agency’s National Coordinator for Community Affairs. “We are confident that this outreach effort will help empower more Hispanic Americans to realize their dreams of owning a home or a business or sending their children to college.”

To see a photo essay on the FDIC’s June 9th announcement of the Hispanic media campaign at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, go to Money Smart Hispanic Outreach Photo Essay.

The President’s Financial Literacy Initiative: In May, President Bush asked the FDIC to serve on the first national public-private partnership to ensure that financial education is available consistently and comprehensively in Hispanic communities. The President announced the initiative during a speech to the 2005 Latino Small Business Economic Conference, where he discussed the need to increase Latino ownership of financial assets.

“There is a need for more financial literacy in America,” the President said, “and so I’ve instructed the FDIC, the SBA and the Treasury Department to work with the Latino Coalition and the Hispanic Chamber and other groups to help make sure that financial literacy is more widespread in all neighborhoods and all communities.” He went on to say that the FDIC, using its Money Smart program, would work with the Latino Coalition to raise awareness about financial education.

A Successful Partnership with the Mexican Government: For the last two years, the FDIC’s Chicago Regional Office and the Consulate General of Mexico have teamed up on a pilot program in the Midwest that has successfully brought Latino immigrants into the financial mainstream by promoting financial education and outreach programs and innovative banking products. The partnership -- the New Alliance Task Force -- primarily addresses the high cost of remittances (the portion of an immigrant’s earnings sent to family members in his or her country of origin) and encourages banking institutions to market accounts that offer remittance features for Mexican immigrants as an alternative to high-cost wire services. Under this program, more than 10,000 Mexican immigrants have participated in financial education classes in the Midwest, 50,000 new bank accounts have been opened and $100 million has been deposited in U.S. financial institutions.

National Hispanic Organizations Backing Money Smart: Four national Hispanic organizations have become partners with the FDIC to incorporate the interactive, computer-based version of Money Smart into their existing job training or community outreach programs. The organizations are the Bert Corona Leadership Institute (provides training programs to migrant and immigrant populations), MANA, A National Latina Organization (empowers Latinas through leadership development and community service), the ASPIRA Association, Inc. (provides education and leadership development to Puerto Rican and other Latino youth) and SER-Jobs for Progress National, Inc. (a network of employment and training organizations for Hispanics).

Training Bank Supervisors in Latin Countries: The FDIC is joining with the Association of Supervisors of Banks of the Americas (ASBA) to offer Money Smart materials and training programs to bank supervisors in Mexico and other Latin American countries for their use in educating their citizens about money management, including how best to handle remittance payments received from abroad. FDIC officials say that Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Guatemala and Ecuador have shown initial interest in pursuing a partnership and developing a financial education program using Money Smart.

Joint Projects with the Inter-American Development Bank: The FDIC is working with IADB to encourage financial institutions to set up programs designed to lower the cost of remittances, develop a campaign promoting “financial democracy” to unbanked and underserved Latin American immigrants, and to generally improve these consumers’ access to the U.S. financial mainstream.