Citi Financial Education Program

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Citi's Financial Education Program

Highlights June 2007

United States

South Dakota- Citi Financial Education Reporting Awards

To highlight the importance of Citi's commitment to financial education in South Dakota, Citibank South Dakota on June 2nd presented the second annual Citi Financial Education Reporting Awards at the South Dakota Newspaper Association's annual meeting in Pierre.
The awards, which carry a $250 cash prize, went to Megan Myers of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader for her story about the importance of preparing financially for long-term healthcare needs, and Molly McRoberts of the Potter County News for a story about how to avoid financial scams on the Internet.

SCIE Region Orange County- Emerging Latinas Program

In June, a 7-week series of workshops designed to teach the basic tools needed to start a business the right way was launched in Brea, California for the National Latina Business Women Association-Orange County Chapter. This Citibank Signature program includes a key component that will include cash mini grant awards to selected participants that submit a "Winning Business Plan" during Part II of the program.
Through the support and technical assistance that Citibank will provide, a total of 25 participants will be impacted, educated and encouraged to start their entrepreneurial journey. Participants will receive 14 hours of valuable education, to include software, which will walk them through the process of building a winning business plan. Five (5) of the participating members will be recipients of a $1000 mini business grant. In addition, NLBWA-OC will extend a "Student Grant" to 5 Business Major Students to participate with the program.

SCIE Region Orange County- Young Adults at Risk

In Santa Ana, California, within the City's Empowerment Zone, over 45 young adults at risk from Taller San Jose received financial education covering topics such as; 1) Importance of having a banking relationship 2) Banking 101 and 3) Techniques to achieving successful savings plans.
These young adults at risk often face day-to-day challenges, like lack of transportation, or lack of funding to pay for childcare providers. Taller San Jose's goal is to develop strong young adults that can survive in mainstream America and successfully improve their financial situations. The use of Citibank's Financial Education Curriculum during the FE classes has assisted these students in achieving successful saving plans, and has allowed more than half of the students to significantly save money to secure transportation and to financially plan to cover all childcare expenses.

Citibank's Student Loan Corporation Announced Winners of the Fed Challenge

Citibank's Student Loan Corporation announced on June 7th the winners of $144,000 in scholarships, awards and grants for the high school teams competing in the final rounds of The Fed Challenge, a national high school economics competition sponsored by participating Federal Reserve Banks. In this challenge, teams of students prepare and present analyses of the economy and make recommendations for monetary policy.
This year marked the tenth year that Citibank has provided support for this program. Citibank awarded $15,000 to each of three national finalist teams and $7,000 to each of three national semi-finalists. The winner was Little Rock Central High School which was awarded $30,000 and an additional $10,000 which will be used to expand their general economics curriculum to include monetary policy and macroeconomic theory.

Bringing Financial Education to the Faith-based Community

On June 26, Community Relations collaborated with the Monroe Foundation to bring financial literacy to the Faith-based community. The objective was to train ministers to present the Citi Financial Literacy curriculum to their congregations and communities. More than 24 ministers and community leaders registered for the program, presented by Shonna Jones-Jacobs, National Trainer for Citi. Sonya Prear, Market Director for Community Development Lending, was our Citi Speaker for the event.
The event is the thought to be the first of its kind for the Chicago area. In addition to content training, strategy discussions on implementing the program into local churches were discussed. Also discussions for implementing a "Community Financial Literacy Week" are currently underway.

Citi Private Bank's Next Generation of Wealth

Citi invited 25 adult children (21-29 year olds) of Citi's Private Bank clients/prospects to attend the Next Generation of Wealth program, a one-week seminar made up of a series of interactive sessions designed to educate young adults on how to invest, manage and govern their wealth.
Over the course of the week, participants had direct access to leading industry experts as well as to Citi's senior management. In addition to the core business sessions, the program provided a unique opportunity for participants to network with one another and, establish relationships with others who may have common concerns, backgrounds and interests. Topics covered were investment management, financial industry overview, capital markets economics, foreign exchange, art investment, environmental/economic sustainability and global real estate outlook.

U.S. Financial Education Training

To date, over 6,600 employees and non-profit partner staff have undergone training to teach financial education using Citi's Financial Education Curriculum.
Nearly 3,700 people have participated in the online training since the April 2005 launch of the site.

EMEA

Israel: Citi Israel's employees volunteered in "Calcala Acheret" A financial Education project of Tel Aviv University supported by Citi Foundation

Citi Foundation and Tel Aviv University announced the launch of the "Calcalah Acheret" project, which is designed to provide personal financial education in the community. The project trains students majoring in economics, business and public policy to provide financial education in underprivileged communities.
In June, Citi Israel hosted 12 students participating in the project for a training day in the Tel Aviv offices. Gil Moshe gave a tour of Citi's trading room and talked about sophisticated treasury products. Shirley Hillinger answered the students' questions about job interviews and resume writing. Tal Frumkis talked about the Israeli banking system, the common banking documents and calculating interest rates.
Citi Israel CCO, Ralph Shaaya met with a group of new immigrants from Iran who participated in the project's seminar. The purpose of this meeting was to encourage the new immigrants to better manage their finances. Josh Pezarker trained the students on managing the family budget. Eli Lurie gave lectures about mortgages to 3 groups of new immigrants and unemployed people participating in the project.

Greece: Financial Education since Elementary School: 7,000 pupils have learned to distinguish their needs from their desires during the school year 2006-7

In the end of June Citi concluded the Financial Education Programme for elementary schools "Economy: Knowledge with…value", which visited 300 classrooms in Athens and Thessalonica in the school year 2006-7.
The Programme funded by Citi and the Citi Foundation seeks to develop children as the future Economy administrators and aims at helping them understand early enough how money is earned, how they can manage the household needs and expenses, how advertising works, in addition to what is the role of the Economy in society and the role of the European Union.
The Financial Education Programme "Economy: Knowledge with…value" in its 3rd consecutive year and has been attended by more than 27,000 children in more than 1,000 classes in Elementary Schools of Attica, Thessalonica, Patras, Larissa and Herakleion in Crete.

FSVC and Citi Foundation Announce Program to Train Russian and Ukrainian Bankers

On June 7 the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC) and the Citi Foundation announced the participation of 10 bankers from Russia and Ukraine in the seventh annual Bank Management Internship and Training Program (BMIT), a program that delivers technical and practical understanding of effective credit and operational risk management.
BMIT helps enhance effective credit and operational risk management skills within consumer and SME business units, including identifying the appropriate organizational staffing structure for the risk management function, identifying and mitigating credit and operational risk, portfolio management, and understanding reporting and monitoring requirements.
Since 2001, the Citi Foundation provided financial support and expertise to different programs of FSVC in a total amount of $1,075,000.

Citi Support Anchors Launch of First International Operation Hope Office in South Africa

Citi Foundation awarded $100,000 to Operation Hope to help open the doors to the nonprofit organization's first international office in Johannesburg, South Africa. This commitment establishes Citi Foundation as a Founding Signature Partner for the overseas programme. The launch event took place on June 7 at CIDA City Campus. The goal is to recruit, train and mobilize more than 250 professional HOPE Corps volunteers to educate 50,000 South African youth and young adults in financial literacy, dignity and entrepreneurship.

Turkey: Citi Volunteers Teach Kids Financial Fundamentals

On June 15, Citi Turkey hosted U.S. Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Dr. David A. Sampson and his delegation at Yasar Dogu State School in Istanbul. Yasar Dogu is one of eight state schools across Turkey where Citi Turkey volunteers have taught financial education to children in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades during this school year.
Secretary Sampson visited the class that Citi volunteers Altug Hamzalioglu, Seda Arasli, Burak Beytekin and Suna Gunbegi have shepherded through the curriculum this year.
During the Americans' visit, 60 students were thrilled to share what they'd learned during the year with the visitors. The Deputy Secretary presented the children with certificates for their participation in the Citi Financial Education Program and gave each child a pen.

Asia Pacific

Citi Bangladesh Financial Quiz to enhance financial knowledge among business school students

The "Citi Financial Quiz Competition", a new program funded by the Citi Foundation, was successfully launched in June by Citi Bangladesh in partnership with North South University (NSU), the country's first and leading private university.
Twelve public and private sector business schools will take part in the national contest to be filmed and televised by the program's media partner, Channel i. Each member of the winning team will receive US$1,000, while the runner-ups will receive US$500 per person.
A high-level advisory council chaired by Dr. Hafiz G.A. Siddiqui, Vice Chancellor, North South University will manage the program. The advisory council will also appoint a special committee to prepare questions for each round of the competition.

Citi & Tung Wah Group launch the "Wisdom of Financial Management" in Hong Kong

Sponsored by Citi and published by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals' (TWGH) Healthy Budgeting Family Debt Counselling Centre, a financial education book called "Wisdom on Financial Management - the 6 Basic Principles to Accumulate Wealth" was launched on June 14. Free copies of the book will be distributed to all primary and secondary schools, as well as public libraries in Hong Kong.
This new book provides students with knowledge on financial management given by role models in society. Business leaders, educators, professionals and TWGH social workers have contributed their stories, life experiences and words of wisdom to the book, including Ivy Lai, Director, Investor Education & Communications, Securities and Futures Commission, and Prof. K C Chan, Dean, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School.
"Citi strongly believes that financial management is a life skill that can improve the quality of life for individuals and families, as well as strengthen communities around the world. We are pleased to sponsor Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in publishing this book, which we hope will inspire the students and help them in making wise choices throughout their student life and even after," said Sim Lim, CCO, Hong Kong and Head of CMB, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Citi Indonesia supports Financial Education for the Poor

The Financial Education for the Poor program, funded by the Citi Foundation, is the first such initiative to be run in Indonesia. This program is designed to help microentrepreneurs and small business owners learn how to effectively manage loans from cooperatives, People's Credit Banks (BPR) and microfinance institutions (MFIs). Citi is supporting the program in partnership with the Management Board of the Economics Faculty of University Indonesia (LMFEUI). LMFEUI will provide training to 75 cooperatives, BPRs and MFIs that will, in turn, train hundreds of low-income borrowers.
At the launch in Jakarta on June 6, Shariq Mukhtar, Country Business Manager, Citibank Indonesia, said, "One of the largest problems faced by the underprivileged in any society is the lack of basic financial management skills. This program aims to teach them skills such as budgeting and saving so that they can make better use of their resources, and in time, end their reliance on loans."
"This pilot project will start in major cities in Java such as Yogyakarta, Bandung and Surabaya," said Dr. Budi W. Soetjipto, LMFEUI Managing Director. "We are hoping that more banking and non-banking loan providers will get involved so that increasing numbers of poor people and small businessmen will benefit," he added.

Citibank Guam Presents at Big Brothers Big Sisters Luncheon

On June 28th, a Citibank Guam senior management team member was the guest presenter at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guam's (BBBSG) Leadership Luncheon for their High School BIGs. Using the Citi Financial Education Curriculum, our Citi volunteer taught the participants the ABC's of Credit and how to use it wisely.

Citibank Malaysia introduces 2nd Agent Penny comic book

Following "The Adventures of Agent Penny and Will Power" in 2005, the 2nd edition of the comic book series entitled "Operation Finance" was launched at the Educational Technology Division of the Ministry of Education in Malaysia on June 6. The launch was attended by ministry officials, Citibank representatives, community partners and more than 300 Klang Valley school students aged 10-12 years.
With funding from the Citi Foundation, over 20,000 students in Malaysia have participated in the Agent Penny program since 2005. Citibank's 2007 goal is to reach 40 new schools and another 15,000 school children nationwide by the end of the year. The 2nd series of this comic book features five new stories covering more advanced concepts such as 1) the types of products and financial services offered by banks; 2) the concept of compound interest and the time value for money; 3) good credit card management and the dangers of overspending; 4) the dangers of credit card fraud, and 5) basic concepts of cost, revenue and profit/loss when setting up a business.
Renzo Viegas, Citibank Berhad's Chief Operating Officer said: "Over the last two years, we've noticed, with great pleasure, the positive impact this program has made to the children who have participated in it. They've not only enjoyed the skit and comic book but also understood the messages about the importance of saving and budgeting."

Citi Stock Challenge makes successful return to Malaysia

Citi Stock Challenge returned to Malaysia in June and attracted over 200 16-year-old students from 18 schools in Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur and more than 200 secondary students and teachers from 20 local schools from Penang's Universiti Sains.
Held yearly since its introduction in 2004, Citi Stock Challenge introduces young students in Malaysia to stock market fundamentals and increases their financial literacy as well as investment knowledge. More than 1,000 students nationwide have participated in the challenges over the last 3 years with funding from the Citi Foundation.
In the first "Knowledge Day," students are taught the fundamentals of investment. Putting this new acquired knowledge into action is the focus of day two where students form their own brokerage houses and commence trading.
Grouped into teams of three, and starting with just RM1,000 (US$290) in seed money, many of the 16-year old trainee brokers displayed great business acumen and skill to buy and sell equities to increase the value of their stock portfolios at the end of the event. The Kuala Lumpur champion team in 2007 was SMJK Katholic High, and Penang winners were SMK Penang Free School and SMK Convent Green Lane.

Citibank advocates "Use Credit Wisely" with new book in the Philippines

Following the successful launch of a "Use Credit Wisely" (UCW) website in 2004 and a local language site in 2005, Citibank Philippines released a 52-page reader-friendly UCW booklet in June that highlights personal credit best practices. This is the latest phase in Citibank Philippines' ongoing credit management financial education campaign.
"The UCW booklet will make credit information even more accessible," said Citibank Philippines Country Business Manager, Mark Jones. "We're very happy to take our credit education campaign to the next level."
The book covers close to everything a consumer needs to know about credit products. It includes tips on how to spend responsibly, how to manage finances in hard times, protection from fraud and also includes worksheets and case studies. Readers are also encouraged to take a short quiz to determine if they need a credit card. There is also a test measuring financial preparedness in case of an emergency situation.

Singapore hosts Citi-sponsored Global Symposium on Financial Inclusion

New strategies and initiatives promoting financial inclusion were presented and discussed at the inaugural global symposium on "Savings, Assets and Financial Inclusion" held in Singapore, June 27-29.
Sponsored and organized by the Citi Foundation in partnership with the Center for Social Development from Washington University in St. Louis, the New America Foundation, the Financial Access Initiative from New York University, and the National University of Singapore, the symposium attracted more than 100 global experts including senior-level policy makers, NGO leaders, scholars, corporate executives and donors from 17 countries.
Speaking at the symposium were Catherine Weir, Head of ASEAN, Citi Markets & Banking, and Citi Country Officer, Singapore; Jorge Rubio-Nava, Director, Institutional Relations, Citi Microfinance Group; Alok Prasad, Head, Strategy & Business Development, Global Consumer Group, Citi India; Leslie Meek, Senior Program Officer, Community Development, Citi Foundation; and Luis Portilla Pouliot, Director, Seguros Banamex.
The importance of asset building strategies and policies in increasing the wealth of low-income households was the focus of the symposium. Asset building is the ability to generate cash surpluses for long-term investments like housing, education and business opportunities. It also provides individuals and families with crucial support in emergencies and the means to create solid, recurring income streams.

Mexico

Young Entrepreneurs Program: Closing Ceremonies

On June 22nd the closing ceremony of the Young Entrepreneurs Program took place. This is an Impulsa program, called Junior Achievement México, and it's supported by EF Banamex with financing, training, recall of voluntary advisors of each company, as well as providing support in the organization of Fairs where their products are displayed and sold.
During the closing ceremony, the Companies and the Young Entrepreneurs with the best performance were recognized according to the following categories : Best Company of the Year, Best Public Relations, Finance, Human Resources, Production, Marketing, Office of the CEO Area and Best Final Report. This time, 358 young entrepreneurs, who reached the final stage, were invited and acknowledged for their important work and efforts during the program, as well as the 75 volunteer Advisors who worked shoulder to shoulder during this great experience.

Saber Cuenta para los niños Program

This past June 26th, after six weeks of intensive work, the Program "Saber Cuenta para los niños" concluded, in the Elementary School, escuela primaria de participación social 1. Three hundred and ninety one (391) elementary school children participated this time, who along with the support of 23 volunteers from the Insurance area in Banamex, covered the program from First to Sixth grade.

School for Parents Program

Within the 2006-2007 school year, the School for Parents Program by Christel House, implemented the topic "Saber ahorrar Cuenta para tu bienestar." Thirty (30) parents belonging to the Christel House School were the attendees of 10 sessions which lasted 20 hrs. These sessions were aimed at improving the Family's financial Administration and learning about the main financial tools they can use to build their own financial plan, in order to help them reach their financial goals and objectives. At the end of June, the last session was held, where attendees were informed that they had successfully concluded the program and were full of enthusiasm to start a new path in their family financial future.

Educación Financiera programs

At an awards ceremony on June 19th 2007, 27 volunteers that participated as speakers and judges in different Educación Financiera (EF) programs were acknowledged. The event was hosted by Enrique Zorrilla, CEO of Banco Nacional de México.
These volunteers supported EF in the following programs:
- Saber Cuenta para los niños (Knowing Counts for Children): three volunteers participated as Tutors at a School for deaf-mute children.
- Programa Jóvenes Emprendedores 2007 (2007 Young Entrepreneurs Program): The hard work of eight volunteers was acknowledged which taught young entrepreneurs about the functional parts of a Business, and acted as judges in one of the stages of the program.
- Foro Internacional de Emprendedores 2007 (2007 International Entrepreneurs Forum): eight Banamex employees presented financial related topics to young entrepreneurs who came from different parts of Latin America.

Latin America

Citi Ecuador & Junior Achievement Work to Benefit 958 Students in Quito

The Citi Foundation is supporting Junior Achievement for the sixth consecutive year. Throughout this time period, more than 9,000 students from Ecuador have benefited through business educational programs designed by the Junior Achievement Foundation.
Thanks to a Citi Foundation donation of US$21,000 to Junior Achievement in May 2007, the first stage of the program "Starting Young to be Successful" was initiated in Quito, Ecuador.
The employees from Citi, setting aside their routine daily activities, participate in the project as teachers and impart educational programs to children and young adults who participate in the program.