Financial literacy is foundational to a person’s ability to navigate life, including everyday decisions about budgeting, savings, credit and, increasingly, the ability to protect oneself from fraud, said Lindsay Torrico, senior vice president of bank community engagement at the American Bankers Association.
“Americans are making day-to-day decisions about these financial issues,” said Torrico, who is also executive director of the ABA Foundation, the association’s nonprofit charitable arm. “Many of them are one unexpected expense away from financial hardship. Early financial education is really critical. It is one of the most effective ways to build long-term stability.”
In April, the ABA Foundation submitted comments to the U.S. Treasury, including its recommendations for how banks can play a role in updating the national strategy for financial literacy. Among the ABA Foundation’s recommendations were:
- Strengthening public-private partnerships to improve locally tailored solutions offered by school systems.
- Modernizing financial literacy to address current economic realities like income volatility, growing debt burdens, housing affordability issues, and more complex financial products.
- Expanding from a narrow “financial literacy” framework to a “financial health” approach that considers cash flow stability, debt sustainability, early intervention, and financial counseling.
- Promoting tools for youth investment and early wealth-building.
- Providing more attention to scam and fraud prevention education.
- Guiding consumers, particularly teens and young adults, on emerging financial products and technologies such as crypto-assets and digital wallets.
In a 2025 ABA survey, 87% of respondents said they support financial literacy education in schools. Torrico said schools and districts can play three different roles:
- Integrate financial education into core subjects, especially mathematics.
- Partner with local banks and community organizations.
- Provide “real-world, hands-on learning experiences.”
“Even if it isn’t part of the curriculum, look for ways to incorporate financial literacy into math [and other subjects] so that it is part of what students are learning,” Torrico said. “Teachers do not have to be the subject matter expert. Lean on banks to provide that expertise. Teachers are overwhelmed, and we’re ready and willing to be leveraged.”
Regarding hands-on learning experiences, Torrico suggests reaching students in a digital-first, gamified manner, leveraging technology they already use and the ways in which they engage with one another.
“We believe it’s important to modernize our curriculum to meet this generation where they are,” she said. “It is important that we support cross-sector partnerships between banks, communities and schools. We’re not going to be able to tackle financial literacy from one sector alone. It’s going to take a multi-sector approach.”
While the ABA Foundation sees financial literacy as most easily integrated into math due to its close conceptual relationship to the subject, the details of how to bring finance into specific curricula are best left to educators at the local level, Torrico said.
“We believe that there is a critical role banks can play in driving this work forward, mobilizing banks to serve as partners in financial wellness,” she said.
Through initiatives like Teach Children to Save and Lights, Camera, Save!, the ABA Foundation attempts to reach younger children and teenagers, respectively, with financial education — the latter through creating videos — and to close gaps in their understanding, “especially in places where financial literacy isn’t part of the curriculum,” Torrico said.
She shares estimates that 1,300 banks and 100,000 banker volunteers have reached 6 million people with financial education in the past three years. “The ABA Foundation has set a goal to reach more young people and more Americans with financial literacy,” she said.
