In response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s eleventh of 12 requests for information, American Bankers Association issued a comment letter encouraging the CFPB to broaden the scope of the financial education it provides and promotes. “Our hope is that the bureau will fully embrace its statutory responsibility,” ABA said, “recognizing the unique role it should play in promoting the provision of financial education to all Americans.
Noting that financial education is essential to a functional consumer financial marketplace, and citing the CFPB’s legal mandate to “develop and implement a strategy to improve the financial literacy of consumers that includes measurable goals and objectives,” ABA specified four areas where consumers need better education. These include arbitration agreements, Parent/PLUS loans, financial data aggregators and safeguarding personal information.
ABA further recommended that the CFPB focus on financial education research and collaboration to “support, but not supplant, the work of non-profit and private sector organizations engaged in financial education.”
Financial education is a longstanding priority for ABA. The ABA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) corporation established to help bankers improve their local communities in a variety of efforts, including building financial literacy. Since 1997, ABA’s Teach Children to Save program and other ABA Foundation financial education initiatives have reached millions of children through nearly 313,000 banker presentations. ABA also recognizes the efforts of individual bankers to promote financial education and literacy. For more information, contact ABA’s Diana Banks.
