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Money Smart News – Spring/Summer 2020

Last Updated: August 19, 2020

News and Information About Working Together with Money Smart



Money Smart News is the FDIC’s quarterly newsletter featuring tips, updates, and success stories for financial educators. We welcome submissions.

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Elizabeth Ortiz

Message from the FDIC

I hope this message finds you safe and well. People all over the world are experiencing stress in many forms during the pandemic. You might be assisting your customers, clients, colleagues, students, and others in your social and professional circles to endure challenges they never faced before.

In these unprecedented times, promoting economic inclusion is vital and we at the FDIC remain committed to share strategies that accomplish that goal. As part of the FDIC’s Money Smart family, you and your organization assist many people to improve their financial health by introducing them to the banking system and to financial coaches. The Money Smart Users Making a Difference article shows examples of the Money Smart family’s achievements. These include: helping a homeless veteran purchase a home (Haven Neighborhood Services in Los Angeles, California) and assisting formerly incarcerated women to establish banking relationships and credit (First Commonwealth Bank in Indiana, Pennsylvania). The article, Success Stories from FDIC’s Youth Savings Pilot Participants, illustrates other examples including working with schools to introduce savings accounts to children from low- and moderate-income families so they can build sound money habits at an early age … and perhaps bring their parents along the way, too.

Please share your success stories, interesting ideas and approaches for using Money Smart to engage people remotely. We will post some of the best ideas in our Success Stories feature and our Idea Exchange.

Finally, I am excited to announce that Money Smart News will change its format from quarterly editions to more regular updates throughout the year. This change will enable us to provide more timely information, tips and updates that can help with your financial education efforts.
And, as always, whether you are offering suggestions or looking for assistance from FDIC staff, email us at moneysmartnews@fdic.gov.

Elizabeth Ortiz
Deputy Director, Consumer and Community Affairs
FDIC Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection

New Instructional Videos Released for Money Smart for Adults Trainers

The FDIC has developed instructional videos for each of the 14 modules for Money Smart for Adults trainers to help them get familiar with the curriculum quickly. Each video on the Train-the-Trainer page, provides a walk-through of the instructor guide for that module and best practices for instructors to consider during their sessions.

Check Out the FDIC’s COVID-19 Resources for Banks and Consumers

The FDIC’s dedicated COVID-19 resource Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information for Bankers and Consumers webpage includes answers to frequently asked questions from banks and consumers impacted by COVID-19. The page also includes a special edition of FDIC Consumer News focused specifically on COVID-19. In addition, as people consider how to stay safer while handling their finances, the FDIC published a new webpage that features new tools, including a video, to help consumers open a bank account without visiting a bank branch. The FDIC encourages organizations to share the resources on this new page widely with people who do not currently have a bank account.

CFPB Releases New Financial Literacy Resources for Middle School Educators

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has designed several new activities for middle school educators to help their students learn about the building blocks of financial capability (www.consumerfinance.gov). The activities are intended to be completed in a single class period. Each activity comes with a teacher guide and supporting student worksheets and materials, making it easy to incorporate interactive and engaging financial capability lessons into classrooms.

Money Smart Success Stories from Educators Adapting to Virtual Trainings

The entire world has had to adapt to COVID-19, and our Money Smart Alliance members are no exception.  The Money Smart Users Adapting to Virtual Training Sessions, article shows a few examples of how they have adapted to virtual training sessions while still meeting community needs.

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