1
Money Smart News July 2003
IN THIS ISSUE Message from the Chairman
Welcome to the first edition of Money Smart News, a quarterly electronic
newsletter designed to keep our Money Smart partners and other inter-
ested parties up to date on this outstanding financial education program
for low- and moderate-income adults.
Each issue of Money Smart News will focus on a specific segment of the
population being reached by Money Smart. This first issue is devoted to the new Asian
-language versions of Money Smart.
A few weeks after Chinese New Year, the FDIC introduced a Chinese-language ver-
sion of Money Smart with events in New York, Chicago, and Houston. And on July 10,
we rolled out the Korean version at a celebration in Los Angeles Koreatown, home of
the largest population of Koreans outside Korea itself.
Money Smart is now available in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean, and we’ll be
introducing a Vietnamese version later this year.
We developed Money Smart – and translated it – because we believe that understand-
ing basic financial principles helps people avoid mistakes that will keep them from
achieving financial freedom and attaining security for themselves and their families.
We also believe that Money Smart gives people who need it most a valuable introduc-
tion to the benefits of doing business with mainstream financial institutions instead of
so-called “fringe banks.”
Money Smart is nearly two years old now. During that time, the FDIC has partnered
with more than 21,000 banks, community groups, churches and city . colleges to make
70,000 copies of Money Smart available to folks across the country. And these individ-
ual partners, together with our Money Smart Alliance National Partners, have enabled
us to reach more than 100,000 people from all walks of life, in all fifty states.
If you read the testimonial below from Ms. Lan Fang Liang, one of our first Chinese-
language graduates, you will understand why we are proud of Money Smart and the
difference it is making in peoples’ lives.
I hope you enjoy this first issue of Money Smart News. And please send us your own
success stories through the link provided below so we can share your good news with
others.
--Chairman Don Powell
Money Smart News July 2003
IN THIS ISSUE Message from the Chairman
Welcome to the first edition of Money Smart News, a quarterly electronic
newsletter designed to keep our Money Smart partners and other inter-
ested parties up to date on this outstanding financial education program
for low- and moderate-income adults.
Each issue of Money Smart News will focus on a specific segment of the
population being reached by Money Smart. This first issue is devoted to the new Asian
-language versions of Money Smart.
A few weeks after Chinese New Year, the FDIC introduced a Chinese-language ver-
sion of Money Smart with events in New York, Chicago, and Houston. And on July 10,
we rolled out the Korean version at a celebration in Los Angeles Koreatown, home of
the largest population of Koreans outside Korea itself.
Money Smart is now available in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean, and we’ll be
introducing a Vietnamese version later this year.
We developed Money Smart – and translated it – because we believe that understand-
ing basic financial principles helps people avoid mistakes that will keep them from
achieving financial freedom and attaining security for themselves and their families.
We also believe that Money Smart gives people who need it most a valuable introduc-
tion to the benefits of doing business with mainstream financial institutions instead of
so-called “fringe banks.”
Money Smart is nearly two years old now. During that time, the FDIC has partnered
with more than 21,000 banks, community groups, churches and city . colleges to make
70,000 copies of Money Smart available to folks across the country. And these individ-
ual partners, together with our Money Smart Alliance National Partners, have enabled
us to reach more than 100,000 people from all walks of life, in all fifty states.
If you read the testimonial below from Ms. Lan Fang Liang, one of our first Chinese-
language graduates, you will understand why we are proud of Money Smart and the
difference it is making in peoples’ lives.
I hope you enjoy this first issue of Money Smart News. And please send us your own
success stories through the link provided below so we can share your good news with
others.
--Chairman Don Powell
2
Money Smart News July 2003
Chicago: Chinese Money Smart Rolled Out at Chinatown Library
It was Standing Room Only at the Chinatown Library in Chicago as FDIC officials, local leaders, Money Smart graduates
and the press came together to celebrate the official release of the Chinese-language version of Money Smart.
The Chinese American Service League (CASL) in Chicago was one of three groups partnering with the FDIC to trans-
late the financial education curriculum into Chinese and test it with groups of students.
Reporters sign in at the Chicago
event. All ten of Chicago's Chinese
-language newspapers covered
the event, as did two Chinese-
language television stations, two
radio stations, and the American
Banker newspaper. (Photo: James
Kegley)
FDIC Community Affairs Officer Michael Frias began working with leaders of the Chi-
nese community over a year ago to develop the relationship that led to a successful
partnership and program. Joked community leader Betty Chao, one of the speakers at
the event: "In Chinese fashion we got this project started by calling all the leaders to-
gether for a meal with Michael. We hammered out details while we were eating, and
that's how the project was born."
All the partners were honored at the event, which featured FDIC Vice Chairman John
Reich. But the highlight of the morning was the personal testimony of Lan Fang Liang,
an immigrant who recently completed the Money Smart curriculum. Speaking in Chi-
nese with a translator at her side, Ms. Liang told the audience that until she took the
course, she did not even know how to fill out a check.
The event was widely covered in the Chinese media, including Chinese television.
The event concluded in the manner in which the project was born: with a big banquet at
a nearby restaurant to which everyone was invited.
Money Smart News July 2003
Chicago: Chinese Money Smart Rolled Out at Chinatown Library
It was Standing Room Only at the Chinatown Library in Chicago as FDIC officials, local leaders, Money Smart graduates
and the press came together to celebrate the official release of the Chinese-language version of Money Smart.
The Chinese American Service League (CASL) in Chicago was one of three groups partnering with the FDIC to trans-
late the financial education curriculum into Chinese and test it with groups of students.
Reporters sign in at the Chicago
event. All ten of Chicago's Chinese
-language newspapers covered
the event, as did two Chinese-
language television stations, two
radio stations, and the American
Banker newspaper. (Photo: James
Kegley)
FDIC Community Affairs Officer Michael Frias began working with leaders of the Chi-
nese community over a year ago to develop the relationship that led to a successful
partnership and program. Joked community leader Betty Chao, one of the speakers at
the event: "In Chinese fashion we got this project started by calling all the leaders to-
gether for a meal with Michael. We hammered out details while we were eating, and
that's how the project was born."
All the partners were honored at the event, which featured FDIC Vice Chairman John
Reich. But the highlight of the morning was the personal testimony of Lan Fang Liang,
an immigrant who recently completed the Money Smart curriculum. Speaking in Chi-
nese with a translator at her side, Ms. Liang told the audience that until she took the
course, she did not even know how to fill out a check.
The event was widely covered in the Chinese media, including Chinese television.
The event concluded in the manner in which the project was born: with a big banquet at
a nearby restaurant to which everyone was invited.