Money 101 seminar for students builds financial literacy in the classroom

Canadian Bankers Association Partners with FCAC to Launch Modernized “YourMoney” Seminar

For Immediate Release
September 4, 2008

Toronto, ON – Just in time for the back-to-school term, the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) today launched a modernized version of its free, non-commercial financial literacy seminar for high school students and community groups called “YourMoney”. In partnership with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), the new seminar will feature fresh content on budgeting, saving and how to use credit through a 40-minute in-class seminar delivered by volunteer bankers from communities across Canada.

“We teach young people a lot of things these days, but basic money management skills often get overlooked, yet they are so important. Learning how to budget, save and borrow wisely now will help them manage their money more sensibly as adults,” said Nancy Hughes Anthony, President and CEO of the Canadian Bankers Association. “The YourMoney program is an important part of the ongoing commitment banks have made to financial literacy and to helping all Canadians learn about the financial issues that affect their day-to-day lives.”

Targeted at senior high-school students, the seminar covers financial basics such as:

• Budgeting: choosing your goals and working towards them
• Saving and investing: the benefits of compound interest and saving for the future
• Credit and borrowing: how to manage credit and avoid credit traps
• Keeping money safe: recognizing fraud and how to avoid it

“In a world where today’s youth quickly develop a keen interest in money, it is important that they acquire strong financial skills early so they can avoid making costly mistakes later in life,’’ said FCAC Commissioner Ursula Menke. “We are pleased to have forged this innovative partnership with the CBA. The YourMoney seminars will be a great complement to The City, our new web-based financial education resource, developed in collaboration with the British Columbia Security Commission (BCSC). We are confident that, in addition to The City’s engaging materials, both students and teachers will benefit from having a financial expert on hand to answer their questions immediately.’’

The CBA’s redesigned YourMoney seminar fully complements The City’s curriculum as teachers using the resource can bring in a YourMoney banker as a guest speaker to discuss the financial issues addressed in The City’s 11 learning modules.

“Our partnership with FCAC will provide students who participate in the YourMoney seminar with access to the additional tools they need to build their financial literacy skills at a critical point in their financial lives,” said Ms. Hughes Anthony.

For close to ten years, the CBA has been providing seminars for high-school students through a network of 1,000 community-level banker volunteers. Developed in 1999, the response over the years shows that there is clearly an appetite for this information. More than 5,600 seminars have been requested by teachers and more than 168,000 students have participated in the seminar. Banks participating in the seminar program are BMO Financial Group, CIBC, Canadian Western Bank, First Nations Bank, HSBC Bank Canada, Laurentian Bank of Canada, National Bank of Canada, RBC Financial Group, The Bank of Nova Scotia and TD Bank Group. Teachers can sign up for a seminar at www.yourmoney.cba.ca. The program is also available to interested community groups and local agencies that work with youth.

For more information on The City, FCAC’s financial life skills program, visit the Agency’s Web portal at themoneybelt.gc.ca.

The Canadian Bankers Association works on behalf of 51 domestic chartered banks, foreign bank subsidiaries and foreign bank branches operating in Canada and their 257,000 employees to advocate for efficient and effective public policies governing banks and to promote an understanding of the banking industry and its importance to Canadians and the Canadian economy.

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For more information:
Melanie Minos, Canadian Bankers Association
Tel: (416) 362-6093, ext. 220
Cell: (416) 587-7733
E-mail: mminos@cba.ca

Marie-France Lettre, Media Relations Officer - FCAC
Tel: 613-948-2707
E-mail: lettre.marie-france@fcac.gc.ca

Martine Bélanger
Acting Manager, External Communications - FCAC
Tel: 613-941-8982
E-mail: belanger.martine@fcac.gc.ca