Throughout April, banks across the Midwest engage in activities to promote financial literacy. These activities range from tried-and-true classroom instruction to engagement on social media.
Bank Five Nine, based in Oconomowoc, Wis., uses an omnichannel approach to foster financial education for both young and old. The bank provides education through a Sunday morning radio show, a podcast, and its blog and Pinterest page.
The radio program, "That's So Money," began in 2019 when WISN-AM 1130 out of Milwaukee approached the bank with an available time slot. "We looked at the audience demographics and concluded that the station performs well in our communities," said Jeff McCarthy, vice president and marketing manager of the $1.5 billion bank. The bank embraced the opportunity to help educate people "in a fun, engaging way."
McCarthy co-hosts with his marketing colleague Becky Miller. "Often, people are intimidated by financial topics [and] are afraid to ask their questions," McCarthy said. "As we say on the show, we're not bankers, we're marketers, so if we can understand the topic, so can the listener."
The program is broken into three segments: The first two are educational and the third highlights area nonprofits or small business customers, such as a recent episode that featured Painting for Pediatrics, an organization that provides relief for families dealing with childhood cancer.
"That's So Money" has become the station's top-rated Sunday morning show.
The station converts each program into three podcasts which are posted on the iHeart radio website. Sometimes those podcasts are also posted on the bank's blog if it goes along with blog content.
"Over the last year, the blog has commanded 45,664 sessions with 91.97 percent of those being new users to our website," McCarthy said. "Our blog [post], 'How to Identify Numbers on Your Check,' saw 30,722 views over the last year. The second most popular [post] was 'How to Fill Out a Deposit Slip,' with 4,624 views; the third was 'Pre-Closing and Closing Checklist for Buyers,' at 4,142 views."
The blog itself generates about $1 million in internal value from visits, McCarthy said, which in turn is boosted by the bank's Pinterest page. McCarthy said that 78 percent of Pinterest users said content from brands was useful, which is much higher than on other sites. So the bank pins its podcasts and blog posts there (www.pinterest.com/bankfivenine), and people can click on them and be brought to that exact link on the bank's website.
On Pinterest, the bank has had 472,120 impressions, 16,980 engagements (interactions with the page like clicking through to the website or saving the page, i.e. "pinning" it) with a total audience of 376,590 that directly relate to the bank's blog or podcast topics, and more than 4,000 visits to the bank's website directly from the bank's Pinterest page.
Part of the beauty of the podcasts, blogs, and Pinterest page is that it makes the bank's financial education components available to anyone anywhere for free, said Mark Mohr, bank president and CEO. "I am proud that our team has developed an omnichannel approach that is reaching people all over the country. As a community bank, our mission is to Make Lives Better, and this is one highly visible way we live that mission."
Laying a solid foundation
The Louisville branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is continuing its quest to find innovative ways to bring financial education to young people.
Seema Sheth, new senior vice president and regional executive of the branch, said she has a "fondness for finance, with a particular focus on widening access to education about money and the economy."
She'd like to see financial literacy education delivered as part of the social studies curriculum in schools instead of in business classes. As a result, the Fed is developing a pilot with Jefferson County (Ky.) Public Schools to introduce financial concepts in its social studies classes.
"Concepts involving money often fall, almost by default, in the math column," Sheth said. "I get why — there can be plenty of complex mathematical concepts involved in upper-level finance. That said, basic financial capability is as much about informed decision-making and prioritization among competing priorities as it is about compounding interest."
The math involved in financial literacy is generally mastered before middle school, Sheth explained. "Personal finance education is a truly cross-functional discipline, which is why the social studies umbrella is the appropriate one for it to fall under," she said. "However, this categorization is new to many of our social studies teachers. So the St. Louis Fed is working hard to ensure they have the resources required to take on this subject matter with confidence."
Curriculum for the pilot is still being created, and new materials are scheduled to be released this month during an hour-long online workshop for educators. More information on the materials available can be found at econlowdown.org.
Reinventing the tried-and-true
In years past, First National Bank of Milaca had periodically hired high school students as interns. But these weren't true internships, according to Rachelle Nelson, president of the $270 million central Minnesota community bank.
After a conversation with an East Coast banker who'd organized an in-school branch, Nelson thought her bank could take that concept, integrate the internship, and build a financial literacy curriculum and a platform that promoted careers that don't require a college degree.
Milaca is a rural community, and "a lot of students there don't necessarily want to go to college after school," Nelson said. After several conversations, tours of other school branches, and board approval, the Milaca school board approved opening a bank branch last September.
The in-school branch has one high school intern per semester. The intern is the point person at the branch bank. "They run the show," Nelson said.
The intern receives training on the teller line, knows how to open accounts, and is given instruction on security. Ashley Juetten, a senior at Milaca Public Schools and the bank's first intern, chose to learn more about lending and operations and get a more well-rounded view of the bank, Nelson said.
The intern works both at the in-school branch and the main office; on days the school branch isn't open, the intern has been inviting classes into the branch. She's presented to younger students using games so they can learn about saving.
Not only does the in-school branch help promote financial literacy, it also exposes students to another career possibility in banking, Nelson said.
First National Bank also works with the trades and art departments to find ways to integrate those students by constructing signs and conceiving a mural.
While it's early, Nelson feels it's been a good fit. "It's been very well supported in our community in general," she said. And for the intern, it's an "amazing opportunity to work in a career you may not otherwise be exposed to."
