Develop Financially Fit Staff And Members With New Personal Finance Institute From CUNA

July 14, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katye Long
CUNA Communications; (608) 231-4038
klong@cuna.coop

MADISON, Wis. – Learn how to develop financially fit staff and credit union members during CUNA’s first-ever Personal Finance Institute, taking place Sept. 10-12 in Lansdowne, Va.

The CUNA Personal Finance Institute was designed to help attendees draft a strategic financial literacy plan for their credit unions to educate youth, adults, and the underserved, with special focus on measuring the effectiveness of those educational efforts.

Credit union professionals will learn how to create new financial behaviors and build a culture of financial learning to attract and help members. Additionally, the “Creating New Behaviors That Last” session will explore how the brain works and how it affects the way people manage money.

Attendees will receive a prework packet to complete prior to the institute, as well as a copy of CUNA’s new Model Youth Program Guide.

The institute was one of seven key recommendations of the CUNA Financial Literacy Task Force in its “Long-Term Strategic Plan to Empower Members by Improving Financial Literacy.” The plan was created to help elevate financial literacy to the level of a core value within credit unions to help sustain the movement’s ongoing philosophy of service to members and communities. The task force operated under the belief that long-term credit union growth depends on improving members’ financial literacy. And that the more financially literate consumers become, the more likely they are to: save and borrow, generate fewer loan losses, resist competitor’s teaser rates, recommend membership to others, and raise their children to be members.

With the current economic conditions, there isn’t a topic that is more important or relevant right now than financial literacy, said Juri Valdov, task force chair and senior vice president for external affairs at Northwest FCU in Herndon, Va.

For more information on the CUNA Personal Finance Institute, visit training.cuna.org and enter “PFIVA08” in the event finder search engine, or call (800) 356-9655, ext. 4249.

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About CUNA

With its network of affiliated state credit union leagues, Credit Union National Association (CUNA) serves 90 percent of America's 8,500 credit unions, which are owned by more than 90 million consumer members. Credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives providing affordable financial services to people from all walks of life. For more information, visit www.cuna.org.

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