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Financial Education
Knowledge is your greatest asset. SM
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Highlights
Citigroup Financial Education Program
 
Highlights for December 2005
 
United States
 
Fed Challenge 2006
  • December 8th in Stamford, Mike Reardon, President and CEO of the Student Loan Corporation, announced that The Student Loan Corporation, a subsidiary of Citibank, N.A., will once again be the sole provider of cash scholarships, awards and grants for The Fed Challenge, a national high school economics competition sponsored by seven Reserve Banks and Branches in the Federal Reserve System. The 2006 Fed Challenge will mark the twelfth anniversary of the program.
  • In The Fed Challenge, student teams work together to analyze factors influencing the U.S. economy and develop presentations explaining their monetary policy recommendations to current members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). These teams compete first at local and Federal Reserve District or Branch levels in late winter and early spring. District winners then advance to The Fed Challenge national semi-final and final rounds of competition held in Washington, D.C. in May.
  • The program allows high school students the opportunity to earn up to $7,000 in Citibank college scholarships. Citibank will award a total of $196,500 in scholarships for the competition. In 2006, schools that win Citibank's District Runner-Up Prize will receive checks for $2,500 to further the teaching of economics for all their students. In addition, Citibank will offer a special Novice Team Award (up to $2,000 in each participating district or branch) to encourage schools that have either never advanced beyond the first round of competition, or have never participated in The Fed Challenge.
U.S. Financial Education Training
 
To date, more than 3,038 employees and non-profit partner staff have undergone training to teach financial education using the Citigroup Financial Education curriculum.
 
1,980 people have participated in the online training since the April launch of the site.
 
Asia Pacific
 
Citigroup-INSEAD Financial Education Summit 2005
  • December 12th in Kuala Lumpur, Ashok Vaswani, CEO for Consumer Banking in Asia Pacific, Citigroup, and Professor Hellmut Schütte, Dean, INSEAD Asia Campus, joined representatives in the private, government, academic and non-profit sectors from 30 countries, including Dara Duguay, Director of Citigroup’s Office of Financial Education, and Catherine Weir, Citigroup Country Manager for Singapore and ASEAN Head, for the second Citigroup-INSEAD Financial Education Summit to discuss the growing importance of financial education within the region, particularly among youth and adults.
  • At the summit, delegates examined various national frameworks for financial literacy and how those involved in policymaking are successfully introducing financial education in school curricula to have greater impact on students. Experts also shared best practices in Asia Pacific financial education program development and delivery for both children and adults.
  • Keynote speakers included: Tan Sri Dato Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Malaysia Central Bank Governor, Donald Johnston, Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and H.E. Truong Dinh Tuyen, Vietnam's Trade Minister.
EMEA
 
Junior Achievement Hungary
  • December 14th in Budapest, Eva Hencz, Public Affairs Officer for Citibank Hungary, presented a US$130,000 grant check from the Citigroup Foundation to Ivan Javorszky, Managing Director of Junior Achievement Hungary (JAH), to support the Citibank Financial Education Program. The grant will provide teaching materials to more than 15,000 students in 36 elementary schools across Hungary.
  • The aim of the program is to provide schools with modern, technology-based curriculum resources and innovative teaching strategies, to increase students' knowledge, skills and performance in economics, mathematics, finance and English. Designed for students in grades five to eight, the teaching package contains software to be used on a state-of-the-art, large-screen computer that is also included.
  • To date, the Citigroup Foundation has awarded a total of US$520,000 to Junior Achievement Hungary. Through this program, launched in 2001, 70,000 students in 142 different schools have gained access to modern personal finance training methods.
Abu Dhabi University Sanabil Scholarships
  • December 20th in Dubai, Sajjad Razvi, Citigroup Country Officer, UAE, and His Excellency Ali Saeed Bin Harmel Al Dhaheri, Chairman of Abu Dhabi University (ADU), announced a 180,000 dirham grant from the Citigroup Foundation towards ADU's Sanabil financial aid program. Designed to help achieve the national goal of educating local professionals in business disciplines, the grant will be used to provide scholarships to 14 students pursuing Bachelor Degrees in Management, Marketing and Finance at ADU's College of Business Administration.
Latin America
 
JA Banks in Action Regional Tournament
  • December 14th in São Paul, Citigroup and Junior Achievement Worldwide announced students from a public school in Brazil as the winners of the week long “JA Banks in Action” Regional Tournament, the largest since its inception in 1998. Teams from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela participated in the tournament. In 2005, the "JA Banks in Action" program reached over 12,000 students in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • "JA Banks in Action" is a business simulation in which high school students assume the role of bankers and make banking decisions such as: attracting deposits and making loans to borrowers, setting interest rates on the funds for short and long terms, deciding how much to spend on marketing to attract savers and borrowers to the bank, and deciding how much to spend on research and development in order to lower operational costs.
  • The Brazil team won a prize of USD$1,000. The Mexico team was awarded second prize and the Uruguay team was awarded third prize, winning USD$500 and USD$250, respectively. Representatives from the Citigroup Foundation, Citigroup Brazil and Junior Achievement Brazil awarded prizes to the winners during a gala ceremony.
  • "JA Banks in Action," created by Citigroup Latin America and Junior Achievement, will undergo an extensive redesign and will become a global program in 2006, thanks to a grant in excess of $2.7 million over three years to JA Worldwide from the Citigroup Foundation. During the closing ceremony, Citigroup and Junior Achievement announced that the 2006 “JA Banks in Action” Regional Tournament for Latin America will be held in Panama City, Panama.