WASHINGTON -- People across the country cannot continue along the same financially illiterate path they have traveled, so credit unions and others need to strive to educate their members to get them on the straight and narrow.
"Financial illiteracy is such a pervasive problem, at all age levels, that we literally must have 'all hands on deck,'" Congresswoman Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), co-chair of the Congressional Financial and Economic Literacy Caucus, stated during CUNA's National Financial Literacy Summit. "With its large membership across the country, CUNA is uniquely positioned to touch literally tens of millions of people with your financial literacy programs." She noted that the summit could not be timelier with the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee holding a hearing Sept. 28. "Not unlike what you are doing here today, we will focus on our agenda: how to capitalize on private sector efforts and develop financial education solutions among the many nongovernmental groups dedicated to our worthy cause," Biggert said. The hearing will also look at public-private partnerships and better coordination between the private sector efforts and those at the state and federal levels. CUNA and NAFCU both had witnesses planned for the hearing. She cited a study that showed that 10 million households do not have a bank or credit union account and said that 37% of workers are not currently saving for retirement. "This has to change, and I have been working with Congressman [Rub?n] Hinojosa and the Financial and Economic Literacy Caucus to identify solutions to this growing problem," Biggert said. --scooke@cutimes.com
