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Financial Education
Knowledge is your greatest asset. SM
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Highlights
Citigroup Financial Education Program
 
Highlights for December 2004
 
NATIONAL
 
2005 Financial Education Calendar
  • In January, Marge Magner, Chairman and CEO of the Global Consumer Group, will send a 2005 Financial Education Calendar to all Global Consumer Group employees in North America.
  • The calendar features children’s artwork and exercises that closely match the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum as well as family-oriented money games and discussions.
  • The light-hearted calendar is suitable for all employees who may wish to share it with their own children and grandchildren or with customers.
Board of Senior High School Principals
  • December 6th in Washington, DC, Ernest Skinner, Community Relations Director, CBNA, organized and hosted the monthly meeting of the Board of Senior High School Principals. Dara Duguay, Director of Citigroup’s Office of Financial Education, addressed 20 principals about Citigroup's commitment to financial education and distributed CD-ROMS of the Financial Education Curriculum.
  • The Senior High Schools represented included: Anacostia, Ballou, Ballou STAY, Banneker, Bell Multicultural, Cardozo, Coolidge, Dunbar, Eastern, Ellington, McKinley, Moore Academy, Roosevelt, Roosevelt STAY, School Without Walls, Spingarn, Spingarn STAY, MM Washington, Wilson, and Woodson.
  • In 2005, the Office of Financial Education will follow-up to organize Train-the-Trainer sessions for the teachers at these schools to integrate the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum into their classes.
Financial Education Council
  • December 15th in New York, Dara Duguay, Director of the Office of Financial Education, convened the second meeting of the Financial Education Council, made up of representatives from each of Citigroup’s businesses in the U.S. and abroad. The group meets quarterly to share resources and information and to promote initiatives to their businesses.
  • The meeting highlighted upcoming 2005 Financial Education programs of several Citigroup businesses and an update on the Spring launch of on-line financial education training for employees.
Washington Area Women’s Foundation
  • December 17th in Washington, DC, Alyson Klug, President of Citibank in the Mid-Atlantic Region, and Dara Duguay presented a $250,000 grant check from the Citigroup Foundation to Anne Mosle, President of the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, to support a financial education program for the Women and Families Financial Independence Initiative. The grant will be used to create a financial education program designed to build the financial independence of more than 10,000 low-income, women-headed families, the Washington region’s most economically vulnerable population. Citigroup is the lead financial institution supporting the initiative.
  • According to a 2003 study conducted by the Women’s Foundation, “A Portrait of Women & Girls in the Washington Metropolitan Area,” 57% of the area’s impoverished families are women-headed households. In Washington, DC, that number is 70%. One in three Washington, DC children currently live in poverty, with 82% of those children living in these vulnerable families.
  • In response to The Portrait Project, the Washington Area Women’s Foundation launched a regional effort called “The Women and Families Financial Independence Initiative” to create long-term social change by shifting the awareness, engagement, practices, and policies that perpetuate the cycle of poverty for these families.
  • To support this initiative, Citigroup will help lead and develop the Initiative’s financial education efforts. Using the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum, participants will receive training on money management, saving, investing, and credit. Citigroup will also work with local non-profit organizations to provide financial and technical support.
The Maryland Public School System
  • Tuesday December 21st in Baltimore, Dara Duguay, Director of the Office of Financial Education, and Pat Robbins, Director of Community Relations, CitiFinancial, met with the Maryland State Superintendent of Education Nancy Grasmick to discuss financial education within the Maryland public school system.
 
FINANCIAL EDUCATION TRAINING
To date, 321 employees and 589 non-profit partner staff have undergone training to teach financial education using the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum.
 
City Year
  • December 3rd in New York City, Blair Smith, Vice President and Training Officer in Citigroup’s Office of Financial Education, spoke to 80 students (ages 17-21) at City Year about the importance of financial education as well as opportunities for learning and teaching the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum.
New York City Housing Authority
  • December 8th in Long Island City, Eileen Auld, Director of Government and Community Relations in Queens, organized an all day financial education Train-the-Trainer seminar for representatives from the New York City Housing Authority. Denise Durham-Williams, National Director of Community Relations, CBNA, and Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, Representative of the 37th Assembly district in Queens, home to Citi's Long Island City Court Square facility, and Chair of the State Banking Committee in Albany, gave remarks.
  • Stacey Sechrest, Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Education, used the Citigroup curriculum to instruct 55 individuals from the New York City Housing Authority on teaching financial education to grades 6-8, basic banking services, saving and investing and credit.
Teach Children to Save
  • December 9th in Long Island City, the Citibank Mentoring Program for P.S. 111 hosted a "Teach Children to Save" program. The program was so well received at P.S. 111 earlier this year, Citibank decided to host the program again during the holiday season.
  • The "Teach Children to Save" program is designed to provide children with basic money skills. Citibank teachers/mentors taught students in Grades 3-5 about responsible spending, allowance and savings, the difference between needs and wants, and the accountability of money spent and earned.
 
INTERNATIONAL
 
Russian Microfinance Center
  • December 2nd in Moscow, Mark T. Robinson, Citigroup Country Officer for Russia, announced a grant of US$98,000 from the Citigroup Foundation to the Russian Microfinance Center (RMC), a non-profit foundation based in Moscow that promotes the development of a strong, sustainable microfinance sector in Russia. The grant was awarded to improve access to financial services for small businesses, to create employment opportunities, and to improve living standards of low-income entrepreneurs.
  • The grant will enable the RMC to address three critical areas important to the integration of MFIs into the formal economy: practitioner skills; industry performance standards; and legislation and regulations governing the sector. The grant will be used by RMC to build capacity in the microfinance sector by developing and delivering training programs, establishing uniform industry performance standards, and conducting a series of high level policy forums for leading practitioners, senior policy makers and regulators in an effort to promote market friendly legislation.
  • Since 2001, RMC has reached more than 700 practitioners and 500 microfinance institutions through consultations, training workshops, and information dissemination. The vast majority of the microfinance institutions served are in the regions of Russia.
2004 Regional Banks in Action Competition
  • December 9-12 in Sao Paulo, Citigroup and Junior Achievement hosted the 7th Annual Regional Banks in Action Competition, an educational program offered by Junior Achievement designed to teach students about the world of banking and finance as it relates to business. Chip Raymond, President of the Citigroup Foundation, Daria Sheehan, Vice President of the Citigroup Foundation, and Lula Rodriguez, Managing Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs for Latin America, attended the event featuring student teams representing 14 Latin American countries including, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
  • Banks in Action provides students with the challenge of operating a bank in a competitive environment that simulates the real banking world. Students must understand all elements of banking including: interest rates on savings, credit, deposit certificates, and term loans, as well as expenditures for marketing and research and development.
  • Local Citibank employees shared their experiences with the students to provide insight into the career opportunities available in the world of banking and finance. The first Banks in Action program was launched in 1996, with the first regional competition following in 1998 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Hellenic Children’s Museum
  • December 8th in Athens, Chris Vassiliades, Business Manager of Citibank Consumer Group Greece, joined Irene Nezi, President of the Hellenic Children’s Museum, to announce the launch of “Economy: Knowledge with Value,” one of the first financial educational initiatives in Greece. Created for Citibank by the Hellenic Children’s Museum, the program is geared towards primary school children and will be launched in 400 primary school classes, reaching a total of 10,000 students.
  • In the program, children participate in interactive educational activities with “performers-educators” of the Hellenic Children’s Museum and more than 200 Citibank employee volunteers. 1st and 2nd grade students will learn to identify the difference between their financial needs and financial desires. 3rd and 4th grade students will be familiarized with the concept of commerce, from fair trade to today’s monetary practices, market functions and the relationship between the consumer and business. Through role-play, 5th and 6th grade students will be introduced to the concepts of saving and of social support, as well as the role of the European Union and the significance of the cooperation between different countries.
  • The program follows a multi-disciplinary approach according to the new trends of the Pedagogic Institute and the Ministry of Education. The annual cost of the program, which will be financed by Citibank Greece and the Citigroup Foundation, is €100,000.
Junior Achievement Hungary
  • December 16th in Budapest, Zdenek Turek, Citigroup Country Officer for Citibank Rt., a member of Citigroup, announced the continuation of the financial education partnership between Citigroup and Junior Achievement Hungary and a US$130,000 grant from the Citigroup Foundation that will provide teaching materials to more than 17,000 students in 36 elementary schools across Hungary.
  • Citigroup Consumer Business Managers and Branch Managers attended holiday events at 36 local schools in Budapest and twenty-one other cities to distribute the educational packages which contain economics, finance, mathematics and English language teaching software created by Junior Achievement to be used on the state-of-the-art, large-screen computers, which are also included.
  • The aim of the program is to provide schools with modern, technology-based curriculum resources and innovative teaching strategies, which will increase students' knowledge, skills and performance in economics, mathematics, finance and English.
  • To date, the Citigroup Foundation had donated a total of US$390,000 to Junior Achievement Hungary and altogether 52,000 students in 106 different schools have gained access to the modern personal finance training methods through this program.
Financial Education in 90 Puerto Rico Public Schools
  • December 22nd in San Juan, Carlos J. Dávila, Retail Banking Director, Citibank Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rico Education Secretary César Rey announced the Marketing Education Program, a financial education course that will be incorporated in 90 high schools throughout Puerto Rico starting in February 2005.
  • Using the Citigroup Financial Education Curriculum, the finance course is geared for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. It is estimated that nearly 1,800 12th grade students will benefit each semester. Citigroup will donate 50 CDs containing the course content (available in English and Spanish) as well as support materials to the Department of Education.
  • Lloyd Bromberg, Director of Education Programs at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, commented: "We congratulate Citibank and the Department of Education for this important educational initiative. We are pleased to see both institutions combining their resources and knowledge for the common good, so we can continue expanding the reach of financial education efforts in Puerto Rico. New York's Federal Reserve Bank is excited to continue working with the Puerto Rico Economic and Financial Education Alliance, the Education Department and Citibank to guarantee that each student has the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of financial education."
  • In November, Stacey Sechrest Carder, Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Education, led a training workshop for 28 of the 90 participating teachers on the 7th and 8th grade Citigroup Curriculum. Citigroup will train the remaining teachers during the first two months of the upcoming year. In addition, Citibank also held the first of many "Train the Trainer" sessions, for a group of 15 employees who volunteered to become trainers for teachers and community leaders interested in learning and disseminating Citigroup's Financial Education Curriculum.