Financial Literacy and Education Commission

Public Meeting

Department of the Treasury – Cash Room

January 26, 2011 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

MEETING MINUTES

Agency Representatives in Attendance

Susan S. Shockey, Department of Agriculture

Pam McClelland, Department of Defense

Phil Martin, Department of Education

Mark H.Greenberg, Department of Health and Human Services

William Glavin, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Michael Davis, Department of Labor

Rosie Rios, Department of the Treasury

Holly Petraeus, Department of the Treasury - CFPB

Julie Schroeder, Department of Veterans Affairs 

Cassandra McConnell, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Anna Alvarez Boyd, Federal Reserve Board

Colleen Tressler, Federal Trade Commission

James Zawada, General Services Administration

Tonya Green, National Credit Union Administration

Raymond Kirk, Office of Personnel Management

Barry Wides, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Tim O’Donnell, Office of Thrift Supervision

Kathy Floyd, Securities and Exchange Commission

Nathaniel Vishop, Small Business Administration

Aviva Sufian, Social Security Administration 

Jennifer Kaplan, White House 

Introduction

U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios convened the meeting and provided opening remarks. 

Featured Presentation

Ms. Rios introduced the featured speaker, Holly Petraeus, Director, Office of Servicemember 

Affairs, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Ms. Petraeus provided an overview of the Office of Servicemember Affairs. The office was 

established to ensure that military personnel and their families have access to effective 

training and support on financial decision-making. In addition to its focus on financial 

education, the office will also monitor military family complaints about consumer financial 

products and services – and responses to those complaints – and will coordinate federal and 

state activities to improve consumer financial protection measures for military families.
Updates on Commission Working Groups

National Strategy Working Group

Ms. Rios introduced Barbara Smith of the Social Security Administration, Chairperson of the 

National Strategy Working Group.

The working group has begun to coordinate with the President’s Advisory Council on 

Financial Capability’s strategy subcommittee, which is chaired by Dr. Lorraine Cole of 

YWCA USA. 

The NSWG met in mid-January to discuss plans for implementing the National Strategy. 

The group reviewed the Commission’s responsibilities with respect to the implementation of 

the national strategy, and recommended that the Commission: 

 Encourage member agencies to develop action plans; 

 Motivate the financial education field to embrace the National Strategy and take action to 

accomplish the national goals.

 Share information about activities and initiatives in support of the national goals. 

The working group recommended that the Commission should encourage national strategy 

implementation on three levels – the Commission; individual member agencies, and other 

organizations in the public, private, non-profit and foundation sectors.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has established the Office of Consumer 

Protection (OCP) on January 1, 2010 to emphasize the importance of consumer protection 

and financial literacy and education. The Office is responsible for a wide range of topics, 

including consumer compliance policy, fair lending examinations, financial literacy 

programs, ombudsman duties, and others. Externally, OCP is coordinating with the

Commission and many federal agencies to develop productive partnerships. For example, 

the NCUA recently announced a partnership with the Department of Education and the 

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to furthering national financial literacy, financial 

access, and savings goals. 

Research and Evaluation Working Group

Treasurer Rios welcomed Jeanne Hogarth, Federal Reserve Board, Chairperson of the 

Research and Evaluation Working Group.

Ms. Hogarth announced that the working group has identified four priority areas for 2011: 

assessing FLEC research activities; establishing a web-based financial literacy research 

clearinghouse; forming a financial literacy research network, and promoting common 

evaluation metrics. In addition, the working group will enhance coordination across 

Commission members and encourage collaborative research to support the development of 

effective interventions.
Outreach and Communications Working Group

Ms. Rios introduced Aviva Sufian, Social Security Administration, Chairperson of the 

Outreach and Communications Working Group.

The Communications working group continues to promote and publicize the MyMoney.gov 

site. Recent accomplishments include collaborating with the Department of Treasury to 

insert flyers about MyMoney.gov in mailings with 2.5 million tax refund checks; and 

publicizing the site on all tax refund envelopes. 

Ms. Sufian announced that the Commission has started using the American Customer 

Satisfaction Index (ACSI) to gauge the effectiveness of MyMoney.gov website. Preliminary 

results include: 

- users are most satisfied with the “site performance” and “look and feel,”

- users are least satisfied with the “navigation” and “search,” and

- the site’s most popular pages were those on, “My Resources,” “Tools,” and “Live 

Events.”

Core Competencies Working Group

Treasurer Rios introduced Luke Reynolds, Chairperson of the Core Competencies Working 

Group.

The working group is finalizing its input on the development of a set of core competencies 

for financial decision-making. Also, the group is exploring ways the Commission can 

support a strategic marketing campaign to publicize information about the set of core 

competencies. The working group has discussed an approach of creating materials that 

strategic partners can use to promote the competencies.

Presentations on Tools and Initiatives

Success Measures Project and Financial Capability Outcomes – NeighborWorks America

Presenters: Debby Visser, Senior Program Manager, and Jessica Anders, Program Manager, 

NeighborWorks America. 

Success Measures is a participatory evaluation tool that community-based organizations can 

use to document outcomes, measure impact, and inform change. It is designed to be used by 

organizations in various locales, and it is broadly available for us by practitioners, funders 

and researchers.

The Financial Capability Outcomes module offers practitioners a set of tested indicators and 

tools that can be used longitudinally to increase understanding of the effectiveness of 

financial capability programs. It features 21 separate surveys, interview formats and other 

data collection tools on consumer financial education, asset building and preservation 
programs. The module includes indicators for: individual/family/household financial status; 

financial behavior; financial attitudes; non‐financial characteristics; informal and communal 

assets; and foreclosure mitigation. Several of the indicators are based on behavioral issues

that address concrete things people do, and strategies to manage financial change over time. 

NeighborWorks America is eager to provide the Financial Capability Outcomes module to 

more practitioners throughout the nation. 

Gallup-HOPE Financial Literacy Index (GOHFLI)

Presenters: Jason Milton, Gallup organization, and Jennifer Thibeaux, Operation HOPE.

GOHFLI is a joint effort by Operation HOPE and Gallup to measure the financial literacy of 

American students in grades 5 through 12. The two organizations partnered to create the 10-

item index, which they fielded to a convenience sample of over 70,000 students in Oct. 2010.

Operation HOPE and Gallup have since updated the items to include economic energy and 

youth entrepreneurship. In Spring 2011, they fielded the index under a name, Gallup-HOPE 

Index, to a representative sample of 5th-12th grade students. Results will be released at a 

summit in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 13, 2011. 

Closing Announcements

Treasurer Rios thanked the presenters and announced that the next Commission meeting will 

be held on May 18, 2011.