Childrens Saving Accounts

The Asset Building News Week is a weekly Friday feature on The Ladder, the Asset Building Program blog, designed to help readers keep up with news and developments in the asset building field. This week's topics include higher education, the American Dream narrative, inequality, financial products, and poverty.

Thursday, May 31, the Asset Building Program hosted an event Financing College Success: Innovations to Promote Readiness, Access, and Completion. We were particularly excited to host Martha Kanter, Under Secretary at the U.S.

The Education Department just announced a new College Savings Account Research Demonstration Project, which will be implemented within the GEAR UP Program. The demonstration will test the effectiveness of pairing federally-supported college savings accounts with GEAR UP activities against just GEAR UP activities. They will initially allocate $8.7 million worth of funds that are already appropriated to support the demonstration.

While a lot of people are off relaxing for the Memorial Day week, we’re in the midst of one of our busiest weeks in a while. Hot on the heels of today’s inequality event we’re really pleased to be hosting another exciting event tomorrow, May 31^st.

By: Ryan Newton, Women’s World Banking; Oshala Bandara, Hatton National Bank

Cross-posted on YouthSave.org

Around the world, girls as young as 10 years old accumulate money regularly, manage it actively, and want a safe place to save it. Unfortunately, financial institutions are traditionally oriented towards adults as customers and do not see youth as a viable target market. In an effort to shift the status quo, Women’s World Banking (WWB) joined 12 financial institutions in Sri Lanka last month to ensure that youth have access to comprehensive savings programs during its first international “Innovations in Youth Savings” workshop. Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, says that, “girls have been left behind in so many ways, including not having a way to build savings in their own name.” To address this issue, Ms. Iskenderian mentioned that, “Women’s World Banking is committed to helping financial institutions design savings products for young women and girls because we know that the development of saving and financial management skills will lead to an increased tendency among girls to pursue higher education, create businesses of their own, marry at a later age, or become property owners – all of which have broader implications for reducing poverty.”

On Tuesday, June 5th, the Global Assets Project (GAP) will be part of a three day discussion on savings for the poor. The webinar, hosted by Microlinks will address three questions that are at the heart of the savings field: where are we now? What is working and why? Where are we headed?

Children are significantly more likely to maintain a relationship with financial institutions and have greater financial assets later in life when they own a savings account earlier in life. However, some children gain access to savings accounts while others do not—an inequity that tends to be based on parents’ socio-economic status. This paper explores the case for extending financial inclusion to children by improving access to basic financial services.

By Julia Stevens and Li Zou, Center for Social Development

Cross posted on YouthSave.org

On April 17, 2012, a Symposium on International Research and Innovation at Washington University in St. Louis highlighted the experiences and insights of the international research partners in YouthSave. The event, which was hosted by the Center for Social Development at Washington University’s Brown School, drew an engaged audience of students, researchers, and program representatives with interests in international research and collaboration.

By Alejandra Montes Saenz, Save the Children Colombia

Cross-posted on YouthSave.org

The topic of student loans is being debated in the Senate this week, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle hoping to pass legislation that would curb rising interest rates. Without legislation, interest rates on federal student loans will double from their current rate of 3.4% to 6.8% beginning on July 1st. A recent article in the New York Times provides a good summary of this debate.