FRONT COVER

Inaugural Citi-SMU Symposium on Financial Literacy for Young Adults

Building Inclusivity in Financial Literacy Awareness

04 July 2014

Singapore Management University

Organised by: Supported by:

Synopsis

This symposium will present cutting-edge research and innovative ways of reaching out to the disadvantaged and financially vulnerable young adults.

MyBnk is a UK based charity foundation that delivers financial and enterprise education directly to 11-25 year olds in schools and youth organisations. MyBnk won the Children and Young People’s Charity Award as a charity that has made the most impressive contribution in improving the life chances of children, young people and families.

It has helped over 58,000 young people learn how to manage and make enterprising decision through fun and interactive sessions. Mr. Steve Korris, Quality and Training Director at MyBnk to share their success stories.

Professor Olivia S. Mitchell from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will present a research paper that was done in an experimental setting where student motivation to enroll in a financial education course was controlled. Using a differences-in-differences strategy, the study showed that financial education led to an increase in knowledge and planning.

About the Citi-SMU Programme for Young Adults

Citi-SMU Financial Literacy Programme for Young Adults is a financial education programme designed to help young adults between the ages of 17 to 30 in Singapore gain financial knowledge and make positive changes to their financial behavior.

We aim to achieve this by teaching target participants the basics of personal finance, especially the key financial knowledge and skills applicable to their life stage.

A train-the trainer model will be used in which selected students from SMU will be trained to deliver the financial literacy outreach curriculum to the young adult community, consisting of young adults in SMU and the wider community in Singapore, with the focus on reaching the low to the moderate income. SMU took a step further by developing a curriculum of the in-depth “Personal Finance” elective module for SMU students.

The financial literacy outreach curriculum was developed with the data and information gathered from the needs and gap analysis. The curriculum covers the following features:

  • Basic money and credit management
  • Financial and retirement planning
  • Home and car ownership
  • Principles of investment

Programme

930-10.00am: Registration

10.00am- 10.05am: Introduction by Associate Professor Jeremy Goh

10.05am – 10.10am: Welcome speech by SMU’s President

10.10am – 10.15am: Welcome speech by Citi’s rep (TBA)

10.15am-10.20am: Video

10.20am- 10.50am: 1st speaker, Professor Olivia S.Mitchell from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, “Does Financial Education Enhance Financial Preparedness?”

10.50am – 11.20am: 2nd speaker, Mr. Steve Korris, Training and Quality Director from MyBnk, Topic: Taking an inclusive approach to financial education

11.20am – 11.40am: Panel discussion moderated by Professor Benedict Koh, “Building inclusivity in financial literacy awareness”

11.40am – 12noon: SMU’s President will be awarding token of appreciation to speakers and panelist

12noon – 130pm: Lunch and networking

130pm: Ends

Event Details

Date: Friday, 04 July 2014

Time: 9.30am to 1.30pm

Venue: Singapore Management University

Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium

School of Accountancy, Level 2

Address: 60 Stamford Road

Singapore 178900

<Image> / Professor Arnoud De Meyer
President
Singapore Management University
Professor De Meyer is the fourth President of Singapore Management University. Previously, he was Director of Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge where he was Professor of Management Studies and Fellow of Jesus College. He was associated for 23 years with INSEAD where he held various senior academic and administrative positions, including founding Dean of INSEAD’s Asia Campus in Singapore.
Professor De Meyer has a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, MBA and PhD in Management from the University of Ghent in Belgium. He also pursued his studies as a visiting scholar at Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). His research interests are in manufacturing and technology strategy; the implementation of new manufacturing technologies.
<Image> / Citi senior rep
/ Professor Olivia S.Mitchell
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Professor Olivia S. Mitchellis the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor at the Wharton School, as well as Professor of Insurance/Risk Management and Business Economics/Policy; Executive Director of the Pension Research Council; and Director of the Boettner Center on Pensions and Retirement Research; all at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Concurrently Olivia serves as a Research Associate at the NBER; as an independent director on the Wells Fargo Advantage Fund Trusts Board; and as Co-Investigator for the Health and Retirement Study at the University of Michigan and Associate Director of the Financial Literacy Center, a RAND/Wharton/Dartmouth Consortium. Her main interests are public and private pensions, insurance and risk management, financial literacy, and public finance.
She was awarded the Fidelity Pyramid Prize for research improving lifelong financial well-being; the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession; and the Roger F. Murray First Prize from the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance. She was also honoured with the Premio Internazionale Dell'Istituto Nazionale Delle Assicurazioni (INA) from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome. Her Social Security reform study won the Paul Samuelson Award for “Outstanding Writing on Lifelong Financial Security” from TIAA-CREF.
She received the MA and PhD degrees in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the BA in Economics from Harvard University.
/ Mr. Steve Korris
Director of Quality and Training
MyBnk
Mr. Steve Korrisis the Director of Quality and Training at MyBnk. He is responsible for MyBnk'straining & management of trainers, quality assurance, international consultancy and impact measurement. He joined MyBnk as a start up and has been a core part of its leadership team which has seen MyBnk reach 75,000 young people across the UK.
He has worked on international financial educationconsultancy projects in Italy, Wales, Brunei and Ireland. Hespecialises in the delivery of quality financial education and has submitted evidence the UK national curriculum review, APPG in Young PeoplELeaving Care and the Money Advice Service Financial Capability Review. He is also part of the CYFI Education Group.
In 2011 he was seconded fromMyBnkto work as one of the firstone to one money advisors for the government backed Money Advice Service.Steve graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA in History and London South Bank University with an MSc in Education for Sustainability.
He has a background in sports development projects and sat on the board of England Handball as an educator advisor promoting the sport of one wall handball into UK schools.
Hooi Min / TBA

Professor Benedict Koh

Associate Dean (Specialised Masters Programmes)
Professor of Finance (Education)
Director, MSc in Applied Finance
Professor BenedictKOH is Professor of Finance and Associate Dean of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at the Singapore Management University. He is also the Principle Investigator at the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics. Prior to joining SMU, he was Vice Dean and Associate Professor of Finance and Accounting at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Koh started his academic career with NUS in 1985. Prior to joining the academia, he was a corporate banker at the Chase Manhattan Bank N.A.
Dr. Koh has served as board member of NUS Academic Staff Pension Fund and associate editor of the Asia Pacific Journal of Finance and Asia Pacific Journal of Management. He is active in management consultancy as well as executive training for banks, companies and government agencies. Some organisations that he had consulted or conducted training programmes for include the ABN-AMRO bank, Allianz, Capitaland, Citibank, DBS Bank, EDB, GE Life, GIC, Hong Leong Group Bhd, IBM, ING Bank, Johnson&Johnson, JTCInternational, KK Hospital, Keppel Land, Keppel O&M, Lubrizol, Manulife, MICA, MSIG, NCC, NHG, NOL, Norsk Hydro Group, Prudential, Raffles Medical Group, Royal Brunei Airlines, Schneider, SGH PGMI, SIA, Singhealth Group, SNEF, Swiss Reinsurance, UBS and Visa.
He has written numerous articles that were published in academic journals, books, Pulses, Singapore Stock Exchange Journal, investment magazines and newspapers. His teaching and research interests are in Corporate Finance, Investment Management, Personal Finance and Financial Markets. He has co-written two books on Personal Financial Planning and Managing Your Money. The former was rated as one of the best-selling non-fiction books in Singapore. His latest book Personal Investments was published by Prentice Hall in 2011.

Associate Professor Jeremy Goh

Associate Professor of Finance
Jeremy Goh is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University. He is also the Principle Investigator at Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics at the Singapore Management University.
He received his BS degree from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (1985) and his MA (1988), MS (1989), and Ph.D. (1991) from Washington University, St. Louis. Prior to joining the Singapore Management University in 2001, he was an Associate Professor of Finance (with tenure) at Drexel University, Philadelphia (1998-2001) and Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of South Florida, Tampa (1997-1998) and a member of the Finance faculty at Chapman University, California (1992-1997).
Topics on which Professor Goh has published paper in referred journals include: corporate finance and governance; financial analyst forecasts; earnings management; term structure of interest rates; bond ratings; convertible bonds; and private equity placements. Professor Goh has published extensively in prestigious journals such as: Journal of Finance, Journal of Business, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Financial Research, Financial Review, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, and Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance.

About Citi

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: | Blog: | Facebook: | LinkedIn:

About Citi Foundation

The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress in communities around the world and focuses on initiatives that expand financial inclusion. We collaborate with best-in-class partners to create measurable economic improvements that strengthen low-income families and communities. Through a "More than Philanthropy" approach, Citi's business resources and human capital enhance our philanthropic investments and impact. For more information, visit

About Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

Established in July 2008, the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI) at Singapore Management University promotes the study of Financial Economics and Financial Econometrics in areas of strategic relevance to Singapore’s economy and economies of the region. A significant addition to Singapore’s efforts to be a financial hub in Asia, SKBI is a leading institute for academic research with strong industry application and practical dimension in the area of Financial Economics.

The institute has major research centres for quantitative financial analysis and offers training programmes for professionals in the financial industry. Its work is conducted in close collaboration with leadings scholars in financial economics and financial econometrics from around the world as well as leading international organisations and experts from industry

About Singapore Management University

A premier university in Asia, the Singapore Management University (SMU) is internationally recognized for its world class research and distinguished teaching.

Established in 2000, SMU’s mission is to generate leading edge research with global impact and produce broad-based, creative and entrepreneurial leaders for the knowledge-based economy. It is known to be a pioneer for its interactive and technologically-enabled pedagogy of seminar-style teaching in small class sizes which remains its unique hallmark.

Home to 7000 students, SMU comprises six schools: School of Accountancy, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, School of Economics, School of Information Systems, School of Law and School of Social Sciences, offering a wide range of bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degree programmes in various disciplines. With an emphasis on generating rigorous, high impact cross-disiplinary research that addresses Asian issues of foreign researchers as well as partners in the business community and public sector through its research institutes and centres.

Through executive education, the University provides public and customised training for working professionals in meeting the needs of the economy. Close relationships with leading universities, including The Wharton School, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, allow SMU to draw on their academic and research strengths in various collaborations.

The SMU city campus is a state-of-the-art facility located in the heart of downtown Singapore, fostering strategic linkages with the business and wider community.

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