Consumer Action to host financial technology (FinTech) trainings

Consumer Action will host two in-person trainings—one on Feb. 5 in Los Angeles and the other on Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C.—along with two webinars on Feb. 13, to educate our community partners about financial technology (FinTech) and provide them with strategies to assist consumers in improving their financial capability. The trainings are made possible through a generous grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation.

The trainings will introduce participating groups to Consumer Action’s Improving your financial health through FinTech guide and complementary resources. Consumer Action will also share key takeaways from its recent FinTech innovation work during the trainings, and practitioners will have the opportunity to share best practices for integrating technology into existing financial coaching and counseling programs.

With grants from the Wells Fargo Foundation and JPMorgan Foundation, Consumer Action has translated the Improving your financial health through FinTech guide into Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. (Community groups will have the opportunity to order these publications for free.)

“We are pleased to scale our FinTech innovation work and collaborate with fellow Nonprofit-Fintech Exchange Interest Group partners and FinTech innovators,” Consumer Action’s Audrey Perrott said. “We’re also excited to bring these parties together to share their best practices for integrating FinTech into existing consumer coaching, counseling and credit building programs, and to spread the word about our upcoming FinTech mini-grant program.”

In Los Angeles, Consumer Action will be joined by the following community partners/presenters: Erika Toriz-Kurkjian, executive director of Haven Neighborhood Services; Isaias Hernandez, community development director of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation; and client services director Joanna Cortez Hernandez and financial coach Efrain Segundo of Mission Asset Fund.

In the nation’s capital, Consumer Action will be joined by the following Nonprofit-Fintech Exchange Interest Group partners/presenters: Dara Duguay, chief executive officer of Credit Builders Alliance; Ayanna Fortson, director of housing and community development for the National Urban League; and Katherine Rios, director of financial empowerment for UnidosUS.

In addition to Consumer Action staff, webinar speakers will include Nonprofit-Fintech Exchange Interest Group partners Laura D’Alessandro, senior program officer for family income and wealth building at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC); Adam Rust, managing director at WiseWage and research director at Reinvestment Partners; and Samir Goel and Abbey Wemimo, co-founders of the digital savings and credit-building platform Esusu.

Webinar participants will have the opportunity to learn from leaders in the FinTech, financial coaching and financial capability fields who have served low-to-moderate-income, limited-English-speaking immigrants and other underserved and diverse populations across the U.S. Readers interested in participating in the webinars can follow the links below to register.

(Please note: The same webinar content will be delivered once in the morning and once in the afternoon; you do not need to register for two webinars on the same day.)

Webinar One: Feb. 13, 2020, 10:00 a.m. PST, 12:00 p.m. CST, 1:00 p.m. EST

Webinar Two: Feb. 13, 2020, 1:00 p.m. PST, 3:00 p.m. CST, 4:00 p.m. EST