JBDSC_0118 Silver Rights Leader and Vice Chairman of US President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy Moderates Roundtable Focused on Financial Literacy in Minority Communities

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today announced that they will host a financial literacy program, including a Roundtable on Financial Literacy and Closing Bell Ceremony, on April 27, 2009. Members of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, NYSE EVP Regulation, Robert A. Marchman, and guests will participate in the Roundtable moderated by Operation HOPE Founder and CEO John Hope Bryant, with an opening keynote address by SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar. Afterwards all attendees will join to ring the closing bell.

The U.S. President’s Council on Financial Literacy will highlight its work from 2008 and its recommendations to improve financial education for all Americans. Increased access to mainstream financial services for the millions of unbanked, as well as supporting employers as providers and conduits of financial education to their employees, will help ensure that the economic crisis we are facing today will not happen again.

The focus of the roundtable will be on financial literacy in minority communities and the role of financial illiteracy in the current financial crisis in America. Talking points will include strategic measures such as making financial literacy aspirationally relevant to youth, tying financial literacy to business partnerships to boost and help stabilize consumer confidence and employee enrichment, and fusing financial literacy into mortgage and credit products.

“April is Financial Literacy Month, and the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy remains steadfast in its belief that financial literacy is key to keeping America competitive,” said John Hope Bryant, Operation HOPE founder, chairman, and chief executive officer who also serves as vice chairman of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, and chairman on the Council Committee on the Under-Served. “With the economic crisis expanding its impact from the broad-based levels of the poor to even the middle class, the work to develop and improve financial education for Americans has never been more relevant. Basically, post crisis, a solid business case can now be made for financial literacy.”

7th meeting for final report1 The NYSE is also recognizing the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy for having made tremendous progress in laying groundwork toward improving financial literacy in the United States, with financial guru Charles Schwab serving as chairman and John Hope Bryant as vice chairman. A full list of Council members can be found at http://www.operationhope.org/smdev/uspacfl4b.php?id=1404. The Council members will ring the Closing Bell in recognition of the critically important work of the Council and for the significance of financial literacy to all Americans.

About Operation HOPE, Inc.

Operation HOPE is America's leading nonprofit social investment banking and financial literacy empowerment organization. With more than 400 private sector partners, 1500 nonprofit organizations and schools, and 100 government partners in 68 major U.S. cities as well as South Africa, HOPE has raised more than $400 million in its pursuit of educating, assisting and inspiring the next generation of global stakeholders. Through international initiatives and its three principal programs, Banking on Our Future (teaching school children about money), HOPE Coalition America (Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline, 1-888-388-HOPE, financial emergency preparedness and disaster relief), and Walk-In HOPE Centers (loans, bill pay, computer literacy, understanding banking principles), Operation HOPE has assumed the responsibility of piloting the Silver Rights Movement towards making free enterprise and capitalism relevant to all underserved communities. To learn more about HOPE, visit our blog www.operationhope.org/blog/.

About the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy

The President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy was created by President George W. Bush in January 2008 to advise the President and the Secretary of the Treasury on ways to improve financial literacy among all Americans, and continues to serve President Barack Obama and the Obama Administration through 2010. The 16-member Council includes representatives of non-profits, private sector companies, academia, state government and other organizations dedicated to the delivery of financial education. More information on the Council can be found at: http://www.treas.gov/PresfinlitCouncil.

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