The Puerto Rico Bankers Association and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will evaluate and select the winners of the first Puerto Rico Financial Awareness Video Contest today Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at Cine Metro in Santurce at 6:30 p.m. The initiative aims to promote the development of creative materials to help educate and create awareness among the young population about the importance of personal finances through creative and original means.
Arturo Carrión, Executive Vice-president for the Puerto Rico Bankers Association (PRBA) said, “as part of our commitment to promote financial education in Puerto Rico, especially among the younger generations, we developed this initiative together with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York because we wanted our young people to be the ones to develop tools that were pertinent and effective for their peers”. He added that the initiative responds to the need for young people to get involved, learn and find ways to understand the message about the importance of financial education from their own perspective so it can have a better reach and penetration among the target group.
The executive added that this is one of the multiple efforts the PRBA is currently doing to promote adequate management of personal finances on the Island, which also include editorial features in the press with recommendations about budgets and expense management, as well as flyers and brochures distributed in the association’s members’ branches.
“The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is strongly committed to broadening financial literacy and awareness by leveraging partnerships, such as the well established one with the Puerto Rico Bankers Association, and we are pleased to serve as a cosponsor for this worthy competition,” said Kausar Hamdani, Vice President of Community Affairs at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Hamdani went on to note the New York Fed’s involvement with the local Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Subcommittee and commitment to community outreach across the entire second Federal Reserve District.
The Puerto Rico Financial Awareness Video Contest called on the participation of university students ages 17 thru 25 to create an educational video about one or several financial topics. The topics to be featured in the video include credit management, bank accounts, credit products, and identity theft. Contestants could concentrate in one single topic or a combination of several topics in their 30 to 60 seconds videos. The piece could include other elements such as music, dramatizations, comedy, animation, documental material and news, among others.
Evaluation criteria included accurate content, correct presentation of statistics, key terms properly defined, how well they connected with the target group and if the piece inspires young people to follow a responsible financial behavior. Message relevance and creativity of the piece will also be evaluated.
First place winner will be awarded a three days/two nights round-trip to New York City and $200 for expenses. Second and third place winners will receive a $500 scholarship for each member of both groups. Students from the University of Puerto Rico, Interamerican University, Metropolitan University, Ponce Catholic
University and the University of the Sacred Heart submitted projects for the initiative. Contestants could participate in the contest as individuals or as part of a group with a maximum of three members with a professor as their advisor.
The Puerto Rico Bankers Association is a non-profit organization. The Puerto Rico bank industry employs nearly 20,000 people. Its infrastructure includes 550 branches, 1,400 ATM machines and 4,700 points of sale throughout the Island.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of 12 banks that together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. forms the Federal Reserve System. The organization was created by Congress in 1913 to function as the central bank for the United States.
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