Financial Literacy and Education Commission

Public Meeting

Department of the Treasury – Media Room A/B

May 18, 2011 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

MEETING MINUTES

Committee Members Present

Susan S. Shockey, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Brenda McDaniel, U.S. Department of Defense

Phil Martin, U.S. Department of Education

Mark H. Greenberg, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

William Glavin, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Michael Davis, U.S. Department of Labor

Joshua Wright, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Louisa Quittman, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Gail Hillebrand, U.S. Department of the Treasury – CFPB

Mandy Sage, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Cassandra McConnell, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Jeanne Hogarth, Federal Reserve Board

Colleen Tressler, Federal Trade Commission

James Zawada, General Services Administration 

Kent Buckham, National Credit Union Administration

Raymond Kirk, Office of Personnel Management

Karen Bellesi, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Deirdre Foley, Office of Thrift Supervision

Kathy Floyd, Securities and Exchange Commission

Nathaniel Bishop, Small Business Administration

Janice Mosby, Social Security Administration

Barbara Smith, Social Security Administration

Introduction, Announcements, and Items of Interest

Josh Wright began the meeting with some welcome remarks. He introduced the featured 

speaker, Gail Hillebrand, Associate Director of the Consumer Education and Engagement 

Division of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

Feature Speaker: Ms. Gail Hillebrand discussed the CFPB organizational structure as 

six divisions including Consumer Engagement and Education; Supervision, Enforcement and 

Fair Lending; Research, Markets, and Regulations; the Office of the General Counsel; External 

Affairs; and the Chief Operating Officer. Ms. Hillebrand also asserted that as CFPB helps to 

shape a marketplace where the information is clear about the costs and risks of the products, it is 

important to encourage consumers to use that information to make affirmative choices that will 

help them save money or get more out of the financial products they purchase. She indicated 

that this will mean a cross-disciplinary approach where insights from the social sciences, human 
behavioral ecology, cognitive psychology, and game theory are brought in order to provide the 

appropriate environment and information for consumers when they are selecting financial 

patterns or choosing products to match their risks and tastes. She also discussed the importance 

of tailoring approaches to meet varying types of populations and different types of decisions.

National Strategy Working Group: Wright introduced Barbara Smith of the Office of 

Retirement Policy at the Social Security Administration to provide an update on the efforts of the 

National Strategy Working Group. The National Strategy Working Group (NSWG) has been 

working on developing an implementation plan for the National Strategy 2011. A draft 

implementation plan has been sent for review to Commission member agencies. As the 

implementation plan is drafted, the Commission will serve three key functions in the 

implementation of the National Strategy 2011: (1) promote the National Strategy 2011 widely 

through a variety of means such as, but not limited to, events, speeches, and social media, in 

coordination with stakeholders from the private and public sectors, (2) provide leadership for 

implementation of the National Strategy 2011 by encouraging Commission members to be the 

first to develop action plans, measures and evaluation mechanisms that will serve as models for 

other organizations, and (3) undertake actions that will establish a summary of Commissionrelated financial literacy and education activities, and encourage enhancements and new 

opportunities. The Commission’s working groups will be active participants in the 

implementation of the National Strategy 2011. 

Research and Evaluation Working Group: Wright introduced Jeanne Hogarth, 

Manager of the Consumer Education and Research Division of Consumer and Community 

Affairs at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to provide an update on the 

efforts of the Research and Evaluation Working Group. The objective of the Research and 

Evaluation Group is to encourage multi-disciplinary research and evaluation to improve financial 

literacy and education. Four primary elements guide the committee’s work. 

Hogarth followed with an update on the proposal to develop a research clearinghouse, 

and the report from the Research Subcommittee of the President’s Advisory Council on 

Financial Capability. She then mentioned the Treasury request for FLEC public datasets related 

to personal finance that will be posted on the research clearinghouse on MyMoney.gov and then 

spoke about the OECD pilot project related to developing common metrics.

Financial Access Working Group: Wright introduced Cassandra McConnell, Associate 

Director of Community Affairs at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to provide an 

update on the efforts of the Financial Access Working Group. The purpose of financial 

education is to provide low and moderate-income families with tools to better their financial 

futures, and to promote access for the unbanked and underbanked. The goals of this working 

group are to (1) assess current financial initiatives among the FLEC members and create an 

inventory of existing resources, (2) explore the opportunity to share and leverage those 

resources, especially with low and moderate-income families, (3) explore products and services 

(accounts, remittances, etc.) that are available for low and moderate-income families.

Treasury Updates: Wright provided some updates on the financial capability efforts of 

the Treasury Department since the last FLEC meeting. On April 12, 2011, he testified on behalf 

of Treasury before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 
Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the 

District of Columbia. The focus of that hearing was mostly on how more coordination of 

financial capability efforts among FLEC members is necessary. Wright also shared that 

Treasury is currently working on further improvements to the FLEC website MyMoney.gov. He 

also provided an update on Treasury’s efforts to develop a marketing plan for the core 

competencies and he noted key highlights from the President’s Advisory Council on Financial 

Capability (Council) meeting on April 21, 2011. He mentioned that the Council made two 

recommendations: 1) that Treasury supports the Workplace Leaders in Financial Educations 

Award, administered by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the 

Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and 2) the Treasury holds a challenge to the 

private sector to create applications for mobile devices that promote financial capability and 

financial access. Wright concluded his updates thanking the FLEC members for responding to 

Treasury’s request for publicly accessible datasets related to personal finance, which will be 

posted in a research clearinghouse on MyMoney.gov.

Presentations

Louisa Quittman, Director of Community Programs in the Office of Financial Education 

and Financial Access at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, provided an overview on the 

Workshop Exploring the Intersection between Financial Capability and Domestic Violence, 

which took place on May 17th. This event explored the impact of financial capability on women 

affected by domestic violence. She then introduced Rene Renick. 

Rene Renick, Vice President of Economic Enterprises at the National Network to End 

Domestic Violence. Ms. Renick discussed issues relating to financial education, financial 

access, and domestic violence. One in four women experiences domestic violence. Financial 

abuse is a common way (92 to 99% of domestic violence situations) for an abusive partner to 

gain power over their partner. Examples of financial access are hiding assets, controlling how 

money is spent, and stealing the partner’s identity. Finances are the main reason why people stay 

in their abusive relationship or return. Financial abuse makes it difficult for the victim to escape, 

and makes it hard for the victim to become unbanked. 

The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) partnered with AllState 

Foundation to develop the “Moving Ahead through Financial Management” curriculum. The 

results of the usage of the curriculum are as follows: 80% of participants created a budget, 71% 

opened a bank account, and the advocates themselves increased their knowledge of financial 

capability. 

 

Ben Mangan: Josh Wright introduced Ben Mangan, President and CEO of the EARN 

Research Institute. Mangan concentrated on the financial self-efficacy EARN model in which 

people must be given the ability to make choices when it comes to managing their money rather 

than just be told what to do. Self-efficacy plays a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks, 

and challenges. In a study done by EARN, self-efficacy lead to fewer financial problems, selfefficacy grew as financial knowledge grew, and when financial happiness grew, financial stress 

decreased. The result is that financial self-efficacy will help people cover expenses, track 

spending, plan and save, select and manage products, and use financial knowledge. A baseline
of 487 surveys show a strong degree of relation between financial knowledge, financial efficacy, 

and financial problems. 

Adjournment

Joshua Wright ended the meeting by announcing that the next meeting of the FLEC will 

be held on September 14, 2011, and by thanking all the members for all of their hard work.