Citi's Financial Education Program   Highlights February 2008   United States   California: Citi Sponsors "The Money Camp" in Los Angeles On Feb. 15-17, Creative Wealth International's (new name for Money Camp) "Wealth Rules" conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center was partially sponsored by Citi Community Relations. Citi was given the opportunity to provide 17 scholarships to low income children/students to attend the conference. Citi Community Relations in partnership with Operation Hope recruited 38 students from several Title 1 schools in South LA to attend the conference. There were a total of 86 students and parents at the first day of the conference. Citi had a booth and promoted Citi's financial education information and comic books. The event was geared to teach some very important information: setting goals and not letting anything get in your way. An accelerated teaching process was combined with games and activities that taught the kids how to make, manage and multiply their money wisely. Kentucky: Citi L.I.F.E. Program Renewed The Citi Foundation renewed funding for the 2008 Citi L.I.F.E. (Leaders Investing in Financial Education) program for 22 classes in Louisville and surrounding areas. In 2007 approximately 1,000 students were reached. In February, Citi employees visited 6 classes in 4 schools and reached more than 175 students from low to moderate-income homes. Citi L.I.F.E. (Money, Markets and Moguls) is a two-hour class taught by volunteers from all Citi businesses. The class teaches financial education terms and the concepts of spending, saving and giving back to the community. Maryland: Operation Hope Event On February 13th, 15 Citi volunteers taught personal finance to 250 students at Dunbar Middle School, located in Baltimore's inner city. The students received lessons on budgeting and the "cost of cool." The program was organized by Operation Hope through a grant from the Citi Foundation. The event's volunteers were employees from CitiFinancial and Smith Barney businesses. For eleven of the volunteers it was their first experience teaching financial education. Washington, DC: Financial Inclusion in the Americas Dara Duguay, Director of Citi's Office of Financial Education, spoke at a "Financial Inclusion in the Americas" workshop hosted by U.S. Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral. This two-day summit on February 14-15 focused on financial access efforts primarily in Central America. Duguay highlighted for attendees Citi's Junior Achievement Banks in Action and Habitat for Humanity financial education programs in Central America. She also gave an overview of Banamex's Office of Financial Education and their major activities. Washington, DC: National Forum to Encourage Savings On February 20th a national forum to encourage lower-income household savings took place at the Investment Company Institute in Washington, DC and was sponsored by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). Dara Duguay, Director of Citi's Office of Financial Education, presented on a panel about the Citi Foundation's support of CFA's Youth Saves initiative. This effort involves a partnership with FCCLA, a youth serving organization, and CFA to encourage savings among young adults. U.S. Financial Education Training To date, over 7,500 employees and non-profit partner staff have undergone training to teach financial education using Citi's Financial Education Curriculum. Over 4,100 people have participated in the online training since the April 2005 website launch. Europe, Middle East and Africa   Portugal: Citi Launches New "JA Banks in Action" Program Citi Portugal has introduced "JA Banks in Action," a new program to teach high school students about the banking industry. This program exclusively launched by Citi, through a grant from the Citi Foundation, was implemented in partnership with Associação Aprender a Empreender, a part of Junior Achievement Young Enterprise in Portugal. Addressed to high school students, the "Banks in Action" program has the main goal to teach high school students key concepts about how banks operate, basic banking services and careers in banking. Students learn about the challenges of successfully operating a bank in a competitive environment through an interactive computer simulation. Students also learn about the features of banking products and services and how they, as consumers, can take advantage of them. The "Banks in Action" program will rely on ten volunteers from Citi Portugal who will present in three schools during the pilot project, in the Lisbon area, including the Instituto de Formação Bancária (Portuguese Bank Training Institute). Belgium: Flemish Young Enterprises Vlajo and Citibank Launch 250th "Jieha!" Vlajo (Flemish Young Enterprises), part of the Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Europe (JA-YE Europe) and Citibank Belgium are partners in financial education. Through different programs, children between six and 25 years old can develop their entrepreneurial skills in their own miniature company. During the last week in February (Entrepreneurship Week), one of these programs, Jieha!, launched its 250th project. Jieha! stands for Young Initiative for Ethical Trade. It offers a brief entrepreneurial experience course over ten to eighteen weeks for fourth and fifth year pupils in secondary education. They set up a student enterprise and sell fair trade products in the school. Thanks to the partnership between Vlajo, Citibank and FTO (Fair Trade Original) the students learn to be ethically aware. More than 2,500 students have already participated during this school year. Funding for the Jieha! Program is provided by the Citi Foundation. Israel: Citi and Tel Aviv University Sponsor "A Different Economics" Program for Students The "A Different Economics" program, a financial education project jointly sponsored by Citi and Tel Aviv University (TAU), is in its second year of operation. The program is run by the Community Involvement Department of the Ruth and Allen Ziegler Student Services Division of the Dean of Students. The goal of the program is to train current students of TAU to provide financial education to individuals and groups who turn to the municipality's social welfare bureaus and other welfare frameworks. The financial education portion includes providing tools and knowledge for making intelligent economic decisions, as well as consultation on exercising rights. Citi supports the project with a monetary contribution, and its employees lead workshops in financial education for various population groups involved in the project, in addition to advising the participating students. Asia Pacific   Hong Kong: "Smart Kid" Program uses Multiplier Effect to Reach Thousands The first "Smart Kid" Financial Education Camp in 2008 took place on February 23, involving 130 secondary school students from 13 schools, and over 30 Citi employee volunteers. During the one-day camp, the students went through a simulation where they experienced the different choices and challenges that needed to be made during a fictitious life, including education, work and unemployment, consumption and savings, investments, and entertainment. To ensure that the program benefits more youths, the participating students became ambassadors when they completed the day camp. Each school team committed to sharing their learnings and experiences with at least 300 of their schoolmates within two months. They will aim to do so through various channels such as school assemblies, classes or school websites. The most creative and effective ways to share the "Smart Kid" Program will be recognized with awards. Sponsored by the Citi Foundation, the "Smart Kid" Financial Education Experiential Program is co-organized by the Learning Society, Citi Hong Kong and Tung Wah Group of Hopsitals' Healthy Budgeting Family Debt Counseling Centre. Malaysia: Citi Survey Highlights Need for Malaysians to Improve their Fin-Q One of the key findings from Citibank Malaysia's Citi Financial Quotient (Fin-Q) survey released on February 5th was that many Malaysians did not totally understand the importance and benefits of personal financial management. Based on the overall results posted in 11 key financial subject areas, 59% of the Malaysians surveyed scored 49 points or below out of a possible 100 points. For example, only 22% of the respondents had a formal retirement plan and more than a quarter had no idea or had not started a retirement plan. Citi Fin-Q gives people a quick snapshot of their current financial health. This is timelier than ever as Malaysians go through the tail end of the festive season and bonus periods. As they take stock of their financial health and setting their financial goals for the year, Fin-Q should give them some indication of where they stand financially and where they could improve. The Citi Fin-Q survey, comprising 400 online interviews of 30 questions each, was rolled out to determine the level of understanding amongst Malaysians about personal finance and their financial practices. Citibank has started to roll out its Asia/Pacific Fin-Q program with country surveys already conducted in Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia. Taiwan: Citi Launches 11th Annual University Lecture Series The 11th Citi-National Taiwan University (NTU) Lecture Series was launched on February 20th. This well-established program is now a for-credit course at NTU which is one of Taiwan's top universities. Key topics covered were "Merger and acquisition trends in the financial sector" and "Market competitiveness from the perspective of foreign banks." Notable guest speakers at the launch event included Dr. Hu Sheng-Cheng, Chairperson, Financial Supervisory Commission; Morris Li, Citi Country Officer; and Professor Shen Chung-Hua, Department of Finance, NTU. During the introduction to his presentation, Morris Li said the lecture series helps students learn more about the financial services sector and the career opportunities available. The series is also a good chance for senior Citi managers to contribute to the development of the industry by providing lectures on a range of topics in retail, corporate, investment and private banking. Launched in 1997, Citi Taiwan's lecture series has been a huge success among students and faculty, and is one of Citi's signature education programs in Taiwan. Citi runs similar programs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Mainland China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Korea. Philippines: Citi Gives Prestigious Finance Educators' Awards The awards ceremony of the Citi-FINEX (Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines) Rafael B. Buenaventura Finance Educators' Awards program was held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Philippines Central Bank) Complex in Manila on February 27th. Funded by the Citi Foundation, this program is named after the former Central Bank Governor Rafael B. Buenaventura in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the finance and banking industry. The objectives of the program are to recognize outstanding finance educators/professors; to actively promote financial education as an important component of tertiary-level education; and to inspire finance educators to achieve excellence in the teaching profession. Candidates were chosen from finance and finance-related professors of colleges and universities that were finalists in the Intercollegiate Finance Competition (ICFC) conducted annually by FINEX. The faculty were evaluated based on Personal Qualities and Character; Knowledge of Finance; Teaching Effectiveness; Written Articles on Finance; and Professional and Community Involvement. The National Winner was chosen from among five regional winners – two from the National Capital Region and three island winners (Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao). Dr. Darwin D. Yu from Ateneo De Manila University was named national winner and most outstanding finance educator. Japan   Student City Since May 2004, the Student City program has been designed to give children a one-day hands-on learning in the virtual "city" for elementary school students (around age 11). After preparatory study in the classroom, the children take turns playing the roles of worker and consumer in the "city." The program aims to give students an understanding of the structure of society and their part in it, and in doing so, instill in them a sense of civic responsibility. On February 2nd and 9th, Citi continued to send employees as volunteers to Student City, which is run by Junior Achievement Japan. MESE (Management & Economics Simulation Exercise) MESE is a computer-simulated program, in which teams of students make production and marketing decisions for an imaginary product. The program, funded by Citi and the Citi Foundation, was developed by Junior Achievement and is conducted by JA Japan. In February, a preliminary round was fought among approximately 300 teams (600 students) and 64 teams fought in the 2nd round. Eight teams were selected for the final match. The final match will be held on March 16. Mexico   Theatre Play "Saber Cuenta" Launched Financial Education is also transmitted through art. Living proof of this was the Theater Play "Saber Cuenta" presentation on February 20th. The launching of the play was headed by José Marti, Citi Human Resource Executive Director/LATAM, who formally inaugurated the play and the event Hostess Loreto Garcia Muriel, Banamex Financial Education Director. Banamex Strategic partners, bank fellow co-workers, and members of the press also attended the event. The Play is a traveling comedy reinforcing the following concepts: the importance of honest work, savings, planning, investments, and the use of financial products and services. The play was the result of joint collaboration between Plataforma Teatro and Banamex Financial Education. Additionally, on February 6th and 8th, this play was presented in the Justo Sierra and Gota de Leche schools. The total number of persons who attended the event were 354 children, and 32 teachers. Inauguration of the Traveling Exhibit in Chiapas On February 25th the third presentation of the traveling exhibit "El Ábaco para Saber más de la Cuenta" was inaugurated in the Science and Technology Tuxtla Gutiérrez Museum (Museo Chiapas de Ciencia y Tecnología "MUCH"). The inauguration was honored by the presence of Isabel Aguilera de Sabines, wife of the Chiapas governor. The exhibit's inauguration, that will be in place for 6 months, was attended by over 500 children from different local schools, special guests from the public, private, and social sectors, as well as various members of the media that informed the public about the presence of this exhibit in the MUCH museum. Train the Trainers "Saber Cuenta para el bienestar de mi familia" (Knowing Counts for the Wellbeing of My Family) During February, the training of 48 promoters of the Center "Desarrollo de la Comunidad A.C." and 12 students of the "Comunidad Educativa Tomás Moro" took place. The aim is to replicate the workshop "Saber decidir Cuenta para el bienestar de mi familia" with parents coming from different schools and other Community Centers. The training lasts 20 hours, and the main objective is for participants to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes to promote a better life quality via decision making focused on the wellbeing of the family by establishing objectives and analyzing diverse financial alternatives. Latin America   Ecuador: Citi & Children International Conclude "Micro Company Training for Young Artisans" Project December 2007 marked the conclusion of the first annual Micro Company Training Program for Young Artisans, a collaborative project between Citi and Children International designed to provide basic business training to young, low-income students from technical schools and artisan centers in the city of Quito. The program was funded by the Citi Foundation with the goal of providing practical tools for young students to start their own productive activities. Senior management of Citi Ecuador generously volunteered their time leading educational sessions and sharing their business knowledge and experience with the students. More than 1,200 students from different educational institutions and areas of the city attended training sessions at one of eight participating artisan and technical education centers. Class sessions included basic business administration, accounting and finance, commercialization techniques, and business planning. Citi Ecuador: A Strong Supporter of Junior Achievement Since 2001 For the past seven consecutive years, Citi Foundation and Citi Ecuador have contributed to the development and implementation of financial education programs that benefit more than 10,000 children and young adults from low-income families in Ecuador. The involvement and active participation of Citi executives, who have volunteered in all the community programs launched by the bank, has been essential in the successful development of the projects during all of these years. In 2007, Citi Ecuador executives spent over 1,000 hours volunteering in support of Junior Achievement programs. Through the many initiatives they shared their knowledge and experiences with the children and young adults. Thanks to the participation of these dedicated employees, Citi has become the company with the most volunteers participating in the execution of Junior Achievement programs in Ecuador.