Financial Literacy and Education Commission Public Meeting 

February 25, 2015 

9:00 am - 11:30 am

U.S. Department of the Treasury – Cash Room

Minutes

Participating FLEC Members and Invited Speakers

Susan Shockey Department of Agriculture 

Barbara Thompson Department of Defense 

David Soo Department of Education 

Elizabeth Coogan Department of Education 

Gretchen Lehman Department of Health and Human Services

William Glavin Department of Housing and Urban Development

Debra Golding Department of Labor

Melissa Koide Department of the Treasury

Amias Gerety Department of the Treasury

Julie Schroeder Department of Veterans Affairs

Luke Reynolds Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 

Mark Pearce Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation 

Tim Manning Federal Emergency Management Agency 

Eric Belsky Federal Reserve Board 

Marietta Jelks General Services Administration 

Gail Laster National Credit Union Administration 

Thomas Curry Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Alan Sorcher Securities and Exchange Commission 

Doug Walker Social Security Administration 
Thomas Curry Office of Comptroller of the Currency

Gigi Hyland National Credit Union Foundation

Cecilia Edwards Karam Capital One

Bill Lawton Community Financial Credit Union

Bob Mantell TS Institute, Treynor State Bank

George Barany Consumer Federation of America

Laura Rosen Center for Public Policy Priorities

Leigh Tivol CFED

Leanne Martin Fay Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Opening Remarks

Amias Gerety, Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, representing the Chair 

of the Commission

Mr. Gerety expressed his delight to participate in the meeting and welcomed all attendees. He laid out the 

FLEC’s focus on increasing the financial literacy of young Americans and in particular increasing access 

to youth savings accounts. He noted the Commission prioritized “starting early” because young people do 

not have the capability they need. He also explained financial institutions have asked for regulatory 

guidance on youth savings accounts, and that guidance has been provided.

Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Vice Chair of the Commission

Director Cordray thanked everyone for their continued work to make a difference in the financial lives of 

consumers. After acknowledging America Saves Week and Military Saves Week, Mr. Cordray 

announced the FLEC would be releasing guidance to help more young people become actively engaged in 

their own financial lives. He stated that since completing a youth employment pilot last year, the CFPB is 

focused on which programs are working and which can be more effective. He explained the program 

communicated savings messages through youth employment programs. Mr. Cordray explained the pilot 

revealed young people are eager to save but face challenges accessing financial products that enable them 

to do so. He stated service providers were hesitant to offer these programs due to a lack of regulatory 

guidance. Mr. Cordray hopes the regulatory guidance will help increase access to these programs. 

Mr. Cordray noted hands-on learning is important, and that parents should teach financial capability skills 

at home. He explained the CFPB’s recent “Financial Well-Being: The goal of financial education

report,”

1

and its formation of financial well-being goals and behaviors. He also noted consumers need 

access to safe and affordable accounts. Mr. Cordray mentioned America Saves Week and Military Saves 

Week as annual opportunities for promotion of financial education; and announced the CFPB is engaging 

in military financial education events.

 

1 Available at http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201501_cfpb_report_financial-well-being.pdf.
Melissa Koide, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consumer Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Ms. Koide thanked all the regulatory agencies and staff that took part in the regulatory guidance for youth 

savings accounts. She also explained how the guidance is important to promoting youth savings accounts.

Thomas Curry, Comptroller of the Currency

Mr. Curry reported that the regulatory guidance applies to all federally-insured financial institutions, and 

is aimed at building financial capability opportunities for youth. He explained the accounts work with inschool banking programs and have low minimum balance requirements and low or no maintenance fees. 

He also explained the terms of the accounts must be provided in an age-appropriate manner. Mr. Curry 

explained that the guidance answers common questions about youth savings accounts and reiterates 

customer identification program requirements. Mr. Curry stated school districts may establish master 

savings accounts if those accounts have a restricted purpose, such as saving for higher education. Mr. 

Curry also noted students with savings accounts in their own names are more likely to finish college, 

which leads to more financially secure futures.

Mark Pearce, Director, Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection, Federal Deposit Insurance 

Corporation

Mr. Pearce explained the regulatory guidance will make it easier for banks and schools to connect young 

people with financial institutions, and help them build good financial habits. He noted that the FDIC and 

CFPB worked on an instructor-led “Money Smart” curriculum, which is now available on the FDIC’s 

website. He also stated the FDIC is working on training tools for teachers, parents and caregivers to

facilitate financial education. The website, www.FDIC.gov/teachers will house the resources. Mr. Pearce 

also noted the FDIC Youth Savings Pilot is underway and includes nine banks working to offer youth 

savings accounts.

Eric Belsky, Director of the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs

Mr. Belsky echoed the view that the new guidance would help financial institutions expand their 

programs and would have implications for financial inclusion. He also stated research and evaluation are 

important parts of financial education and reported that the Federal Reserve as part of the FLEC, worked 

with the Journal of Consumer Affairs to publish papers on youth savings that build opportunities for 

financial inclusion. 

Meeting Panel: Youth Savings Programs in Practice

Luke Reynolds, Chief, Outreach & Program Development, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation served 

as moderator and introduced the panelists.

Gigi Hyland, Executive Director, National Credit Union Foundation

Ms. Hyland stated that ideally financial education would be part of every school day. She gave an 

overview of credit unions’ history and their involvement with youth savings. She mentioned the National 

Youth Involvement Board - a volunteer organization focused on equipping the credit union industry with 

the resources to reach youth. She mentioned Biz Kid$, which is a youth financial literacy program that 

inspires kids to think about their future and empower them to make smart financial decisions through a 

television series, classroom curriculum, and peer-to-peer approaches. Ms. Hyland also explained that 

credit unions host high school financial reality fairs, which are hands-on experiences where students 

identify their career choices and complete budgets based on starting salaries. She also mentioned CUNA’s 
Mad City Money Reality Fair and America’s Credit Union Museum. Lastly, Ms. Hyland encouraged

FLEC members to continue conversations with states to encourage youth savings efforts.

Bill Lawton, Chief Executive Officer, Community Financial Federal Credit Union

Mr. Lawton explained his credit union cooperative’s youth savings work in Michigan since 1962. He 

explained that educating youth was good for business. Through educational partnership coordinators, 

these efforts create new relationships with parents, build its community-focused brand, and create a strong 

base of young members. Mr. Lawton also described one of the credit union’s reality fairs. 

Mr. Lawton outlined the challenges the credit union has faced in its efforts to promote youth savings. For 

instance, finding school partners to teach financial education is difficult because the schools’ priorities are 

aligned with the subjects on which students are tested, and students are not tested on financial education. 

Secondly, gaining family support has been difficult as well as justifying the costs of the programs to the 

credit union. Mr. Lawton explained that it is difficult to track the credit union’s effectiveness and 

membership growth resulting from these initiatives. He also described the schools’ concern of mixing 

education with commercial interests. Nonetheless, Mr. Lawton encouraged the FLEC to find and share 

success stories. He also recommended the FLEC create educational standards for healthy living and 

provide “turnkey” best practice solutions.

Celia Edwards Karam, Managing Vice President, Capital One

Ms. Edwards Karam explained financial literacy investments are key to equipping communities with the 

money management skills they need. She described Capitol One’s four student-run banking programs. 

Ms. Edwards Karam explained that each of her banking programs is successful because they equip 

students with necessary skills, such as college and job skills. She explained that the programs employ 

high-potential students and impose on the student workers a very rigorous 10-week summer training 

program. The program makes the students responsible for teaching financial literacy in their classrooms. 

Ms. Edwards Karam mentioned the students voluntarily teach their communities financial literacy skills. 

She noted the programs target under-privileged communities.

Ms. Edwards Karam stated that since starting the program in 2007, 194 students have graduated from the 

program; 100% graduated on time (higher than the average rate for the participating schools); and 94% 

went to college (tremendously higher than the average rate for the schools). She stated the business 

benefits to Capitol One include its future customers being better equipped to use its products, and the 

bank’s communities being better educated.

Bob Mantell, Director, TS Institute, Treynor State Bank

Mr. Mantell described the TS Institute’s K-12 program which works with an Iowa school district. He 

described how the program promotes and enhances financial literacy by providing objective advice on 

curriculum, best practices, subject matter expertise on state standards, and in-school support such as 

lesson plan delivery and assessment facilitation. Mr. Mantell explained the TS Institute also provides 

professional development for teachers, and supports infrastructure to complement classroom learning, 

including in-school banking and after school programs. Mr. Mantell also mentioned the Iowa Department 

of Education has recently dedicated resources to the improvement of financial literacy and has moved to 

make financial literacy mandatory for all students.
Questions

Commission members and panelists discussed how financial institutions could build partnerships with 

schools. Panelists noted the importance of personal relationships with school staff and leadership. They 

also discussed whether parents were inhibiting the use of school savings programs by not providing 

support. Panelists noted challenges that might arise if the parents are required to be custodians of youth 

accounts. Commission members discussed how the regulatory guidance addresses the issue of parental 

sign-up and the ability for schools to enroll students into youth savings accounts.

Commission members and panelists considered the issue of the lack of data that is necessary to assess

business advantages of these programs (costs, development of relationships, and future business); there 

was general agreement of the need for more data. A fourth discussion point was the issue of teacher 

support and engagement. Panelists noted teachers understand and support students, and described how 

their respective organizations train and prepare teachers and provide teacher resources. 

A final topic of discussion was barriers to scale. Panelists noted internal barriers exist due to the difficulty 

of linking the programs to long-term benefits to the institution. They also discussed the challenges in 

building relationships with schools. Cecilia Edwards Karam mentioned that it might be helpful to put 

financial literacy and education on smartphones to better reach youth in a scalable way. 

Meeting Panel: Policy Implications of Youth Savings

Leigh Tivol, Senior Director, Programs, Corporation for Enterprise Development

Leigh Tivol began the panel by framing the state of the field in youth savings, noting dozens of new 

programs are arising at the state and local levels. She also explained that new research is helping 

advocates build their cases for investment in youth savings. She noted the lack of solid data on the 

number of school based programs, but estimated (low estimation) that thousands of schools are engaged. 

She also described other types of youth savings programs. Ms. Tivol explained that establishing 

additional partnerships has been a barrier to scale because of questions about regulatory and legal 

implications of the programs. She noted the new guidance would address many of those questions. Ms. 

Tivol moderated the panel, pointing out that different approaches may be useful in different settings, but a 

common theme is integrating savings into existing systems.

Laura Rosen, Policy Analyst and Opportunity Texas Coordinator, Center for Public Policy Priorities

Laura Rosen explained her work on Texas’ policy and platforms to expand financial education statewide. 

She explained that it is better to combine education and account access as seen through her organization’s 

Amarillo pilot outcomes, in which teachers reported that having a bank account brought the lessons to life 

for students. She also noted that being in the schools provides an ability to reach many more students. 

Ms. Rosen described school banking as costly but financial education costs can be minimized through the 

use of existing curricula. She further stated that mandates are not politically viable in her state, but the 

programs should be optional at the local level. She suggested college savings with incentivized matching 

would be helpful in gaining parent participation; and the product should be distributed through 

curriculum. She also noted many financial institutions already offer youth savings accounts. Ms. Rosen 

stated her organization would provide technical assistance to these programs throughout the state of 

Texas.
Leanne Martin Fay, Director of Financial Education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Leanne Martin Fay explained her work at the Massachusetts’ Treasury and its “Savings Makes Sense” 

grassroots efforts with schools and banks. She explained the state’s efforts have been hampered due to 

questions about regulatory interpretations. The state is committed to implementing a youth college 

savings account program. 

George Barany, Director, Financial Education and Young America Saves, Consumer Federation of 

America

After announcing America Saves Week, George Barany explained Consumer Federation of America’s

youth savings initiative, which focuses on a young person’s first paycheck as a teachable moment to 

introduce financial concepts, such as saving. To highlight the need for automatic savings for youth, he

provided examples from focus groups that have evaluated the use and effectiveness of youth savings 

programs. For example, young people reported everyone tells them to save, but no one ever shows them 

how to save. Moreover, those who did save did so through a direct deposit split-pay process and received 

account-opening assistance from a banker. Thus, Mr. Barany called for a business argument to convince 

financial institutions of the long-term benefits of this type of youth savings program. He also emphasized 

the split-pay process needs to be simple for young people to understand and enroll. 

Questions 

Amias Gerety asked about the use of bank accounts versus 529 plans for saving for college. Laura Rosen 

noted that a pilot project showed parents did not feel comfortable enrolling in an investment product, such 

as the 529 plan, that locked their assets. Leigh Tivol explained the “ease of use” challenge for investment 

accounts such as 529 plans amongst the unbanked population. Ms. Tivol requested ways to make 529 

plans easier to use.

Mark Pearce questioned whether there are additional areas for regulators to do work, such as FDIC’s pilot 

or looking at the metrics for the Community Reinvestment Act Service Test. George Barany mentioned

tax benefits may be helpful. Mr. Barany also suggested highlighting programs that do great jobs would be 

helpful. Mr. Barany also mentioned the idea of identifying populations that use alternative financial 

services, and marketing to those populations. Thomas Curry acknowledged changing demographics pose

risks to its regulated institutions. Laura Rosen added that the role of banks in providing financial 

education could be elevated by participation in school bank programs. The group discussed the need to 

respond both to the business needs of financial institutions, and the educational objectives of schools.

Closing Announcements

Barbara Thompson, Director, Office of Family Policy/Children & Youth

Barbara Thompson announced Military Saves Week will close with a fair at the Pentagon. She stated that

2015 is the ninth year of Military Saves Week and the Department of Defense hopes to expand to 50,000 

pledges.