How do you help low-income families - who may have little or no experience with conventional banking - learn money skills, financial discipline, and move to economic self-sufficiency? The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has the know-how with its widely praised "Money Smart" program, and HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) recognizes that its clients - low-income families - would rather be moderate- and middle-income families...and the resulting partnership could change lives across the nation.

A few months ago, PIH and FDIC signed a "memorandum of understanding" to promote FDIC's Money Smart program. Money Smart is a training program to help adults outside the financial mainstream strengthen their money skills, learn the value of commercial banking, and begin moving to economic self-sufficiency. A sound financial education can build financial stability - not just for individuals but for entire communities.

PIH understands that the more public housing residents know about credit and banking services, the more likely they are to build real assets in the form of savings, a downpayment on a home, and other benefits of good financial health. PIH programs - such as Resident Opportunities and Self-Sufficiency (ROSS), Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) and Welfare-to-Work (WtW) vouchers - already link public housing residents with individual development accounts (IDA), homeownership counseling, entrepreneurship training, employment training, supportive child care services, services coordination, case-management and resident empowerment activities. Now, the Money Smart curriculum can help individuals build financial knowledge, develop financial confidence, use banking services effectively and begin to build real assets on their road to self-sufficiency.

In addition, the Money Smart program may be used by banks and other organizations interested in sponsoring financial education workshops. Collaboration is important to the success of any education effort. HUD and the FDIC encourage banks to work with others in their communities to deliver financial education and appropriate financial services to individuals who may be unfamiliar with the benefits of having a relationship with an insured depository institution.

The Money Smart program can help banks fulfill part of their Community Reinvestment Act obligations. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) encourages federally-insured banks and thrifts to help meet the credit needs of their entire community, including areas of low and moderate income. When a bank's CRA performance is reviewed, the institution's efforts to provide financial education and other retail services are a positive consideration.