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In a new Compliance Blog post, NAFCU Regulatory Compliance Counsel David Park outlines the Financial Literacy Annual Report for fiscal year 2019 released by the CFPB late last month. NAFCU works closely with credit unions, lawmakers and regulators to promote financial literacy and ensure credit unions' members can reach their financial goals.

“The 2019 Report covered the CFPB's financial literacy activities during the 2019 fiscal year and its strategies to improve the financial literacy of consumers,” writes Park in the blog post. The report examined three key elements of the CFPB's strategy to meet its mandate to improve consumer financial literacy, including:

• providing financial education to the public;
• sharing research on effective financial education with financial educators; and
• addressing inclusion and financial security for certain, specifically identified communities.

Park breaks down each element, summarizing pertinent updates, and suggests the report itself may be useful for credit unions when they are considering ways to improve the financial literacy of their members.

Some highlights of the CFPB's financial literacy and financial education work include:

• the launch of the "Start Small, Save Up" campaign in February 2019, created to provide consumers with tools to help them reach personal goals (NAFCU teamed up with the bureau to promote the initiative among credit unions and also pledged to support other savings initiatives);
• the expansion of the CFPB's Office of Servicemembers Affairs' online training program, "Misadventures in Money Management," to all future servicemembers; and
• the availability of the CFPB's Office of Older Americans' "Managing Someone Else's Money" co-branding guides for credit unions and other stakeholders to share with their customers.

NAFCU's Compliance Team publishes a new blog every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on key regulatory issues affecting credit unions. Sign up to receive new Compliance Blog posts.