CFPB Issues 2019 Financial Literacy Report

Last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its Financial Literacy Annual Report for fiscal year 2019, which is part of the Dodd-Frank Act’s requirements that the agency report on its work to provide information to consumers that helps them make informed decisions about financial products. The report highlights agency efforts to promote savings, as well as its delivery of digital and print resources to more than 12 million consumers in 2019.

Bureau Director Kathleen Kraninger wrote in the introduction that the report “describes the Bureau’s efforts in a broad range of financial literacy and capability areas within its statutory mandate and relevant to consumers’ financial lives.” The three-part strategy to increase the financial skills of Americans includes providing financial education to the public, sharing research on effective financial education and well-being with educators, and addressing needs for inclusion and financial security of traditionally underserved consumers.

The CFPB began its Start Small, Save Up campaign in February to increase financial well-being by developing more opportunities for consumers to save money. The agency is “working with a broad spectrum of others to seek ways to reduce individual and institutional barriers to savings, and promoting solutions that make savings easier and more accessible,” Kraninger wrote.

Kraninger also highlighted programs for underserved consumers such as servicemembers, students, and older Americans. This includes online training programs such as Misadventures of Money Management and Your Money, Your Goals.