Credit Union Highlighted for Creating Economic Opportunities, Financial Inclusion
HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation/Hope Credit Union) and the Mississippi College Savings Account program will be featured on the Friday, April 19, episode of Need to Know, a nationally broadcast Public Broadcasting System news magazine. In recognition of financial literacy month, the show highlights how the program helps families overcome the challenges of paying for advanced education, and how HOPE is creating solutions for low-wealth individuals and economically distressed communities.
HOPE CEO Bill Bynum was interviewed for the program. “Need to Know provides a great forum for bringing attention to the tremendous need for responsible financial services that help families prosper during these difficult financial times,” said Bynum. “As more and more Americans find themselves outside the banking system, innovative solutions and institutions like HOPE are critical to creating ladders of opportunity for struggling families.”
Need to Know correspondent Stacey Tisdale provides an in-depth report on the MS CSA, a program designed to help low-income children save for college – and teach them about banking and money along the way. The crew recorded the students making field trips to the credit union, a grocery store, and a college campus.
The MS CSA program seeks to address the gap in educational attainment affecting low- income and minority students in Mississippi, where less than 15% of 9th graders end up transitioning to and completing college. The two-year pilot project will help more than 500 families develop good saving habits, create a financial nest egg, and pave the way for college.
As part of the story, Lasonia Christon, whose child is part of the MS CSA program, describes how the program is helping her create a brighter future for her children with the savings program. In addition to building a college fund for her twins, Christon has also made important financial decisions for herself. She had been unbanked prior to participating in the program, but is now a HOPE member with both a checking and savings account.
HOPE is working with residents and leaders in communities that have been left behind by traditional financial institutions and provide new or continued access to low-cost, responsibly structured deposit accounts and loans. HOPE has opened new branches or merged with other credit unions that were in danger of closing in six markets across the region. HOPE is also introducing or enhancing convenience services such as online, mobile, and telephone banking as well as self-service kiosks that allow residents and businesses in rural areas to manage their finances without geographic barriers.
In another segment, anchor Ray Suarez interviews Richard Cordray, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Bynum currently serves as the Vice Chair of the CFPB Consumer Advisory Board, bringing his nearly three decades of experience in community development finance to assist the agency in its efforts to help consumer finance markets work by making rules more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives.
HOPE has been working to ensure that perspectives from the Mid South are considered in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s efforts to combat abusive financial practices. Bynum recently made a presentation to the Board that included a discussion of the relationship between payday lending and the region’s high rates of unbanked and underbanked residents, and an overview of related policy and legislative debates.
HOPE will also be featured on Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s Mississippi Edition on April 19. The radio program, which airs at 8:30 a.m. and is available online, includes a conversation with Karen Brown and Bill Bynum. They discuss HOPE’s Need to Know appearance and how the organization is working to create a more stable financial environment for low-income families and what efforts have been most successful in creating change. You can hear the show at http://mpbonline.org/mississippiedition/.
A preview of Need to Know is available at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/economy/need-to-know-april-19-2013-mississippi-savings/16757/.
To find the broadcast schedule for public television stations in a particular market, viewers can visit http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/schedule/.
See a photo album of the field trip at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.464330543645684.1073741826.119780104767398&type=3
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HOPE is a regional financial institution, community development intermediary and policy center that provides affordable financial services; leverages private, public and philanthropic resources; and engages in policy analysis in order to fulfill its mission of strengthening communities, building assets, and improving lives in economically distressed parts of the Mid South. Since 1994, HOPE’s efforts have generated over $1.7 billion in financing and benefited more than 130,000 individuals in the Delta, Katrina-affected areas and other distressed communities throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.