Citi Financial Education Program

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Citi's Financial Education Program

Highlights May 2007

United States

Satellite Radio Media Tour for "The Citi Commonsense Money Guide for Real People"

On May 10th, Citi conducted a satellite radio media tour that promoted the new Citi personal finance book "The Citi Commonsense Money Guide for Real People." The interviews emphasized Citi's overall commitment to financial education.
Radio interviews were conducted in a dozen cities across the U.S. Additionally, the Citi book will be given away as a complementary gift at many Citi sponsored conferences this year such as the National Urban League, the Black Caucus Forums, the National Council of La Raza, the Jimmy Carter Work Project, and many more.
Several Citi businesses will provide the educational book to customers, employees and non-profit partners. Citi customers and employees can order the book at a discount by visiting the dedicated fulfillment site: http://www.thebook-store.com/citi.

Citi Foundation and the State University of New York (SUNY) Announce Continued Support of "Financing Your Independence"

On May 9th Pam Flaherty, President & Chief Executive Officer Citi Foundation, announced a $450,000 grant for the continued support of "Financing Your Independence," a collaborative financial literacy program designed to help broaden employment opportunities to economically-disadvantaged adult learners in New York State. This program began in 2004 at three participating SUNY Education Opportunity Centers (EOC) and will now be expanded to six sites.
An independent evaluation of Financing Your Independence by MAGI Educational Services reported that students' attitudes toward focusing on their personal finances have significantly improved, and that they were more confident about their own financial management abilities and planning for the future. A few key findings:

Students made significant changes to their financial practices, such as;
- Following a budget
- Maintaining a financial plan
- Balancing their checkbook each month

Fourth Annual CITI® CREDIT-ED® Survey

Results of this year's fourth annual national survey of college juniors and seniors by Citi Credit-ED®, Citi's award-winning financial literacy program for young adults, finds continued growth in positive credit management behaviors.
The Citi Credit-ED/Synovate online survey of more than 1,000 college upperclassmen revealed that while they are practicing better credit management behaviors, they still have room for improvement. After a steady decline for several years from a high of 65% in 2004, the percentage of upperclassmen feeling secure about managing their finances and credit after graduation has leveled off.
As with last year's survey, this year's respondents continue to be optimistic about their financial security. They have high expectations for achieving gainful employment within months of graduating and expect to make a decent salary doing so. Additionally, the majority of upperclassmen continue to view their parents as positive financial role models as well as reliable sources for both financial information and support.

Citibank Branches in Connecticut Trained on Citi's Financial Education Curriculum

On Tuesday, May 8th, Citibank branches in the state of Connecticut received training on Citi's Financial Education Curriculum. These sites are among the first Citi business to be trained in the New England territory. The training took place in Hamden, Connecticut. 35 Branch Managers were in attendance. Some community partners were also in attendance.
Since the training, the Citibank sites in Connecticut participated in their local Trade Show where they managed a display table featuring all available Citi FE material generating interest in their local communities regarding financial education.

Delaware: Purses to Portfolios

At a Press Conference on May 8, 2007, the Citi Foundation awarded a $220,000 grant ($110,000 per year for 2007 and 2008) to the Delaware Financial Literacy Institute for the From Purses to Portfolios: Delaware Women Take Charge of their Money program. This program provides financial education classes and events; and rewards and recognizes Delaware women for attainment of at least 10 hours of financial education.
The Grant will fund the October 2007 Purses recognition event where women will be honored for their achievements in taking control of their finances, the October 2008 Delaware Purses Financial Education day-long Conference for 1500 anticipated attendees, eight one-half day-long financial education Community Events that attract on average 80 participants to learn about a financial topic such as investing, controlling debt or starting a business, a quarterly financial education newsletter made available to over 10,000 Delaware women per issue, a website and other program components and events.

CitiFinancial FE May Highlights

18 CitiFinancial volunteers taught financial education to 494 elementary students in Michigan, California and Arizona.
In Michigan, six CitiFinancial branch managers used the Citi Financial Education curriculum as an "ice breaker" and introduction for a mentoring project with third graders at two elementary schools.
In Hacienda Heights, California, a CitiFinancial branch employee spoke with four middle school classes about careers and financial decisions related to income and jobs. She also used the Citi Financial Education curriculum to teach the students about credit and how to use it wisely. Students who could answer some of her tough questions won CitiFinancial baseball caps. All of the students received "Reaching for the Sky with Your Financial Dreams" calendars and Oscar the Owl activity booklets.
A new financial education coordinator in Tempe, Arizona trained 12 CitiFinancial branch managers how to teach "The Cost of Being Cool." As a team, on one day, the managers taught the lesson to the entire 8th grade class of a middle school - a total of 350 students.

Citi Smith Barney's 2007 Stock Portfolio Contest

On May 14th, Citi Smith Barney announced the winner of its 2007 National Stock Portfolio Contest. The winner was Scott Cary's 8th grade class at St. Anne School in Seattle, Washington. The team's portfolio increased 2.38 percent. The class surpassed the performance of 98 other classes from schools in 19 states that participated in this year's program.
During the contest, students from all of the participating schools tracked the performance of their portfolios online through the Young Investors Network web site at www.younginvestorsnetwork.com.
Smith Barney's Young Investors Initiative focuses on educating middle school students on the basic fundamentals of investing and how these skills will enable them to become financially responsible adults. The initiative is supported by the firm's web site that offers young investors, parents and teachers a variety of materials and financial games to help further their financial education.

U.S. Financial Education Training

To date, over 6,100 employees and non-profit partner staff have undergone training to teach financial education using Citi's Financial Education Curriculum.
Nearly 3640 people have participated in the online training since the April 2005 launch of the site.

EMEA

Romania: Citi, Citi Foundation and Junior Achievement Developed the "Money and Budget" Program

The program, launched in March and ended in June, was supported by a grant from the Citi Foundation. 26 Citigroup employees were actively involved in teaching 100 courses to 15-18 year old students from Bucharest, Ploiesti and Constanta, during March-June 2007.
This was the highest number of volunteers from the same company to participate in a JA Romania program. The 26 Citi employees taught students how to avoid financial failures, how to save and invest their own money, and also how to spend their money wisely.
2,200 students from 23 Romanian cities acquired financial literacy, business and banking skills directly from professionals, within the "Money and Budget" Junior Achievement program supported by Citi Foundation and the Ministry of Education.

Turkey-Financial Education Taught to 4,800 Young People

A Citi Foundation grant enabled Turkish Education Volunteers Foundation to implement a financial education program that has reached 4,800 young people from February 2006-June 2007.
This financial education program aims to provide awareness of savings for young people aged 11 - 16 years as well as developing consumer skills about the difference between needs and wants.
Since the program's inception in 2004, it has been implemented in 67 parks and units of TEGV across 32 cities in Turkey. TEGV and Citibank volunteers execute the Financial Education program over an 8-week period. Lessons include, "I am frugal, you are frugal, we are frugal", "Needs and Wants", and "Savings".
Run in collaboration with the Corporate Volunteers Association, and funded by the Citi Foundation, the financial education project provided training before the volunteers enter the classroom. The employees then visited TEGV locations once a week over a 10-week period.

Asia Pacific

Korea – Citibank-YWCA "Think Money" program sponsored by Citi Foundation extended to elementary schools

The Learn and Experience Finance Class of the 2007 Think Money program was launched in early May by Citibank Korea and YWCA Korea. Building on the success of the 2006 program that reached 34,000 middle school students, the 2007 initiative is being extended to include elementary school students, and is funded by a US$430,000 grant from the Citi Foundation.
The objective of Think Money is to help young Koreans develop a better understanding about basic money management concepts. This year, 11 elementary schools from 10 areas nationwide will participate in a pilot program that includes finance classes for 4th-6th grade students followed by field trips to the stock market, the Currency Museum of Korea, as well as local companies and factories.
Another new and unique initiative is the "Finance Class with Mom & Dad" project whereby Citibank Korea employees will run finance classes at the respective schools attended by their children. In addition, weekly after-school finance classes will be offered at 10 YWCA facilities in 10 regions across Korea.
100 Citibank executives and employee volunteers will also be trained to serve as Think Money lecturers throughout the year.

Taiwan – Citi Foundation-funded "Dollars and $ense" program to make even bigger difference in 2007

Now in its fourth year, Dollars and $ense (D&$) continues to grow from strength-to-strength and 17,000 high school students are expected to participate in the 2007 program.
Run in collaboration with the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation (TWRF), and funded by the Citi Foundation, this well-established Citi Taiwan campaign has successfully delivered its responsible financial management messages to 60,000 high school students in more than 100 seminar and forum sessions at campuses across the country.
The program has evolved to include more complex topics such as opportunity cost, wealth creation and good credit habits. In addition to seminars, D&$ also features multimedia educational tools such as a "Save for the Future" DVD and other materials.
To keep program materials relevant, Citi and TWRF enlisted Nielsen Consulting to conduct a survey to track trends and attitudes among teens towards saving and spending. Over 1,700 students were interviewed and based on the survey results, Citi and TWRF are incorporating the following elements in 2007: programs to teach students how to use the Internet wisely, particularly in chat rooms and online stores; programs designed to help parents teach their children about the importance of being prudent; educating students about different interest rate levels; and advocating for financial education to be integrated into the formal education system.

50 Students graduate from the University of Hong Kong - Citibank University Banking Course sponsored by Citi Foundation

The graduation ceremony for the 50 students in the 2006-2007 University of Hong Kong - Citibank University Banking Course was held on May 14. Four students with distinguished performances were awarded "Outstanding Achievement Awards" - Mr. Fung Ka Kei, Lester, Mr. Lau Ho Kwan, Mr. Wong Ming Chi and Ms. Wong Tsz Yan.
To reward them for their great efforts, the four students will make a study trip to New York later in the year, to visit Citi's headquarters and other landmark financial and education institutions.
During the four-month program, the students selected from the Faculty of Business and Economics of HKU attended 13 classroom lectures presented by senior Citibankers. The lectures covered a wide range of retail banking topics. The students also made a site visit to the Citibank branch office.
Since its launch in 2005, the student response to this Citi Foundation funded initiative has been overwhelming and it's now an annual program on campus. Students selected for the course also have the opportunity to interview for internships at Citibank Hong Kong.
The Banking Course was launched in Taiwan in 1998 at the National Taiwan University. Since then, similar initiatives are also run in China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore. As well as teaching students on the fundamentals of finance and banking, the program aims to develop and inspire future industry leaders.

Japan

Student City

Citi Japan and Citi Foundation in cooperation with Junior Achievement Japan has been a main sponsor for this program, which is aimed at elementary school students. The aim is to help them understand the formation of society at virtual "Citi." Initial funding was provided by a $200,000 grant from the Citi Foundation.
The 2007 program started in May for this school year and will continue until next February with approximately 1,960 students participating.

Latin America

Citi and Habitat for Humanity Provide Housing in "Mucho Lote" Area (Ecuador)

Recently, Citi and Habitat for Humanity carried out the construction of two more houses in the Mucho Lote neighborhood. This brings the total number up to thirteen families from the cities of Quito and Guayaquil that have benefited from the alliance between Citi and Habitat.
This is the fourth consecutive year in which Citi contributed with economic and human resources to support the housing projects and financial education programs of Habitat for Humanity.
Educating Families - "Expanding the Coverage and Reach of Financial Education" is a project aimed at educating and teaching families to handle their income, their credit responsibility and obligations, and the importance of managing a family budget. Habitat for Humanity and Citi have implemented this program for two consecutive years, providing financial education to 239 families living in Guayaquil, Quito, Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo and Tosagua.

Citi Foundation gives USD $50,000 for financial education (Jamaica)

Citigroup Country Officer, Peter Moses presented a USD $50,000 grant to United Way of Jamaica for a Financial Education Program which will benefit 250 youths in 15 schools across five communities.
The Citi Foundation grant was presented to Alvaro Casserly, chairman of the United Way of Jamaica, last week at the headquarters of Youth Opportunities Unlimited at Camp Road.
The Financial Education Programme entitled "Practical Training in Financial and Money Management", targets at-risk youth between the ages of 10-19 years old and will be conducted by Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU).
In making the presentation, Citigroup Country Officer Peter Moses said: "We are very pleased to work with the United Way and Youth Opportunities Unlimited to provide this opportunity as we believe that financial education is an important tool that will assist individuals to become leaders in their respective communities".