Citi Financial Education Program

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Citigroup Financial Education Program

Highlights for August 2005

United States

Smith Barney & Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas

August 3rd in Wichita, Smith Barney and Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas (YEK) announced two Wichita area students as the winners of the Smith Barney YEK contest. As winners, Ricardo Melon of Wichita Northwest High School and Alysha Nett of Campus High School joined Adrienne Rosel, Miss Kansas 2005, in New York City from August 11th - August 13th and met with Wall Street executives and visited the New York Stock Exchange.
For eight weeks, thirteen Wichita area students worked with the Smith Barney Wichita, Kansas Branch to improve their financial education. Each participating student was provided with a mentor from among the Financial Consultants within the branch. Participation in the program was limited to graduates of the Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas program offered in several Wichita area high schools. Topics covered included: capital markets, the stock market, US economic history, methods of reducing market risk, the role of a financial consultant and other career opportunities within the financial services industry. In the final week, six finalists were chosen to compete for an all expense paid trip to New York based on a comprehensive presentation of their knowledge gained over the 8-week program.
Winner Ricardo Melon of Wichita Northwest High School said, “The Smith Barney and Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas partnership has been a great learning experience for me, Alysha, and the rest of the contestants. It’s a privilege that I will never forget and will always be thankful for."
Campus High School’s Winner, Alysha Nett added, “Before this program, I didn't know anything about the stock market or a career as a financial consultant. This is important information that I can use the rest of my life."

Operation HOPE “Banking on Our Future” Tour

August 5th in Los Angeles, Lisa Barrett, Executive Vice President and Regional Director, Citibank West, teamed up with John Bryant, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, to lead an interactive “Banking on our Future” seminar on using credit wisely for 80 students enrolled in James Monroe High School’s summer program.
August 11th in Chicago, Oboi Reed, Vice President and Director of Community Relations, Citibank, teamed up with John Bryant, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, to lead an interactive “Banking on our Future” seminar on using credit wisely for 150 students enrolled in the Martin Luther King Boys & Girls Club’s summer program.
In February, Citigroup and the Citigroup Foundation announced a $500,000 grant to expand the Banking on Our Future program to reach 10,000 students in seven cities, including Washington, DC, Baltimore, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, CA; and Atlanta. In addition, Citigroup employees volunteer as HOPE Corps banker-teachers to educate students about the basics of earning income, budgeting, saving and investing. Since its inception, “Banking on Our Future” has served over 140,000 individuals nationwide.

The Citi Credit-ED Challenge

August 31st in New York, Jeff Schumacher, Senior Vice President, Citi Cards, announced the launch of the Credit-ED Challenge, a one-hour, interactive, free financial education workshop delivered to campuses across the country and in an online tutorial at www.Students.UseCreditWisely.com. Citi has also designated the week of September 26 - 30 as “Get Credit-ED Certified Week.” Once students have completed the Credit-ED Challenge, they are encouraged to take the Credit-ED Challenge Certification quiz to become Credit-ED Certified.
According to a Spring 2005 study by Student Monitor Financial Services, only 25% of students think that their college provides them with the resources necessary to use credit responsibly. To meet the needs of approximately 10.4 million college students, Citi’s Credit-ED Challenge provides the latest financial education information, videos and activities to help students learn how to budget, the importance of a credit history and how to use credit wisely. Since its inception in 2000, Citi’s Credit-ED Program, an ongoing and comprehensive credit education initiative for students, has distributed over 1 million credit education materials for free to students, administrators and parents.
Rosella Bannister, Manager, Jump$tart Personal Finance Clearinghouse and Director Emeritus of Consumer Education at Eastern Michigan University supports the Challenge: “College students will like the Credit-ED Challenge -- it cuts to the chase on credit card issues that students need to know. A nice package bundled into a one-hour workshop -- this learning experience promises to make a significant difference in the lifelong financial well-being of college students.”

Financial Education Training

To date, more than 2,380 employees and non-profit partner staff have undergone training
to teach financial education using the Citigroup Financial Education curriculum.

1,440 people have participated in the online training since the April launch of the site.

International

Asia Pacific

Citibank Retirement Index

August 2nd in Sydney, Citibank announced the results of the recently launched Citibank Retirement Index, a survey commissioned by Citibank, to assess financial expectations and preparedness for retirement of Australians today. Conducted by Newspoll amongst 325 semi- and fully retired people aged 55 and over and tracked every six months, the research indicates a huge savings gap and an inability to live the retirement they wanted. In addition to providing a wake-up call for millions of Australians, it offers a powerful learning tool for future generations of retirees.
Results indicate that today's retirees are struggling financially:
- More than half of over-65s (around one million) live on a household income of less than $30,000, over 900,000 (54%) of them depend on the age pension as their main source of retirement income and over 500,000 (29%) retirees don't have a secondary source of income.
- For those aged 55-64, retirement isn't even on the horizon, let alone something to look forward to; 33% don't know when they will retire, 28% don't actually plan to retire at all and around one in ten (11%) plan to hang up their boots after they hit 70.
- Of the 1.3 million or so retirees aged 55+ who wished they'd started saving sooner, 45% think that 20 years earlier would have been the right starting point, and a further 17% think more than 16 years earlier would have done the trick.
- Almost half of retirees (45%) claim they need the same amount of income, if not more, in retirement than they earned while working. But around one in three over-65s didn't take serious steps to save for their retirement until the age of 55.
- Highlighting the disparity between the genders, only 29% of women surveyed were "very confident" about their level of savings to fund retirement compared to 43% of men.
The launch of the Citibank Retirement Index coincided with the opening of the new CitiGold wealth management center and the introduction of the Wealth Creation seminar series, both aimed at getting people actively involved in building wealth for their retirement. Tammy Paola, Pitt Street CitiGold Center Manager; Les Matheson, Managing Director, Citibank; Mark Jones, Head of Retail Banking, Citibank; and Suvrat Saigal, Director, CitiGold, attended the ribbon cutting ceremony.

"The Alliance of Experts" Investor Education Program

August 18th in Singapore, Jonathan Larsen, Citibank Singapore's Country Business Manager and Chief Executive Officer, announced the launch of “The Alliance of Experts,” an investor education program designed to help both experienced and new investors better understand the financial opportunities, products, and services in today’s markets to allow them to make more informed investment decisions. Third party fund managers, academics, and independent financial planners are also participating in the program, initially being rolled out in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea.
A series of seminars, open to the general public, will be conducted over the next two months and will cover areas including investment strategies, risk management and asset allocation. Citibank managers will be joined by senior investment managers from Schroders, Franklin Templeton Investments and Henderson Global Investors to provide expert financial advice.
In July, Citibank issued findings from an investor psychology report, "The Emotion Behind Investing," prepared by Professor Anil Gaba, Professor of Decision Sciences and Dean of Faculty and Research at INSEAD's Asia campus. The survey, conducted in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, showed that Asian investors could be overconfident, highly averse to loss and allow fear of regret to impact their investment decisions.

2005 NSW Prime Minister's Award

August 26th in Sydney, Citigroup Australia and the YWCA NSW received the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Community Business Partnership in recognition of Finance First, the first curriculum-based financial literacy program for primary school children in Australia and the first financial education program to target children and adults simultaneously.
Citigroup and YWCA NSW share the success of the state Prime Minister's award with many people who have collaborated in developing and delivering the "Making Cents" program for children and "Even Start" program for adults. These include the team at the NSW Department of Education and Training, members of the NSW Financial Counselors Association, the team at the University of Technology, Sydney and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Jocelyn Murphy, YWCA New South Wales chief executive, noted: "Our partnership with Citigroup in the Finance First project has enabled us to make a significant and long term contribution to the community."
“Finance First” teaches the basics of money management and consists of two programs: MakingCents, a program for primary school children and EvenStart, a program for adults wanting to get a handle on their household finances. This year, "Making Cents" has been expanded into classrooms across Australia with teachers from around the country taking part in professional development workshops.

Latin America

Junior Achievement Ecuador

August 2nd in Quito, Francisco Aristeguieta, Citigroup Country Officer for Ecuador, announced a US$20,000 grant from the Citigroup Foundation to Junior Achievement Ecuador to support “Our Region, Our Nation and Our World,” a financial education program for students in eight public schools in Quito and Guayaquil. Roberto Romero, Junior Achievement General Coordinator, accepted the grant check.

Approximately 1,200 students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades are expected to participate in the program. Thirty volunteers from Citigroup Ecuador will participate as instructors teaching lessons on basic financial, marketing, production and business concepts. They will contribute approximately 500 volunteer hours to the program. Empresario Juveniles’ “Partners for a Day”

August 5th in Guatemala City, Citigroup and Empresario Juveniles (Junior Achievement Guatemala) sponsored “Partners for a Day,” a financial education program designed to educate students about the economic and professional challenges of business. For the day, 150 high school students were paired with managers from 25 national and international companies to learn about decision-making and running a business.
Companies that participated in the initiative included: La Fragua, Industrias De La Riva, Banco Uno y de Comercio, Byte, Cervecería Centroamericana, Maseca and Toledo, among others. Since December 2004, 70,000 young people have been trained by Empresarios Juveniles.