NEW YORK — NCUA Chairman JoAnn Johnson joined other senior government officials as featured speakers for the Eastern Regional Conference on Reaching Unbanked People held in New York City Oct. 4.
During her address, Johnson emphasized that financial services providers must acknowledge the difficulty in reaching the unbanked, offer financial education, and credit unions specifically need opportunities to expand into underserved areas. "While financial education is not the sole cure for problems facing the underserved, it is necessary for all of us in the financial services community to emphasize its significant role at every opportunity," Johnson said.
"As NCUA Chairman, financial education is a priority for me. I believe that achieving financial well-being is not based on obtaining a loan or buying a new car; rather, it is learning and adhering to basic financial principle–knowing the importance of saving, how to balance a checkbook, budgeting, and investing for the future." Johnson serves on the Financial Literacy Education Commission and chaired the committee to establish the mymoney.gov financial education Web site.
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Johnson also noted NCUA and credit unions' work lobbying Congress to allow all federal credit union charter types to adopt underserved areas, which is a key provision added to the Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act (H.R. 1537) this year and a stand alone bill (H.R. 3113). "Credit unions are proven partners in the battle to achieve financial literacy for many Americans, and NCUA is working with Congress to allow all federal credit unions to expand their fields of membership to serve the many that remain unable to access reasonably priced financial services within their communities," Johnson said.
She highlighted NCUA's efforts to encourage partnerships between credit unions and other government agencies and non-profits to help expand their work.
U.S. Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral and Treasury Deputy Assistance Secretary Dan Iannicola also spoke to the group. Cabral noted, "To be sure, the unbanked population is diverse, and a diversity of financial products and services is required in order to meet their unique needs. This means that in some cases financial institutions might need to change their business models. For example, we've seen successful models of credit unions in immigrant communities who provide multilingual materials and put employees behind the counter who can speak the same language. Others found that simply changing the workplace attire from coat and tie to khakis and a polo shirt helped provide a more welcoming atmosphere for new customers."
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