FIN201 Corporate Finance

The article published by yahoo finance investigates regarding the relevance of financial education as per the CEO of American College of Financial services. Brad Smith, an anchor at yahoo finance conducted an interview with the George Nichols, the CEO of America College of financial services to know and discuss regarding the courses related to financial education which this college was offering and the ways in which financial service providers can effective relationships with the black communities. Thus, in this article interview methodology was utilised to investigate regarding its research topic. It was known from this article that this American college of financial services for the first time in its history of 95 years has launched a consumer program for financial wellness. Moreover, this program also incorporate 19 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and had an aim to add up to 25 such HBCUs in this initiative.

The CEO of this college stated that when they developed this program, they generally established a new centre for the economic equality and empowerment. It was found that this program mainly focused on helping the undeserved communities’ specifically Black American on their respective journey for upward mobility and minimising the overall wealth gap. Generally, the CEO observed in his research that people like college students begin their financial transactions and have certain relevant financial decisions but they do not actually understand the way they think and feel regarding money. This financial program would help these students with such major financial decisions. It was mentioned in the article that it is the correct time to add such program in the curriculum or as the add-on service for such college students because the college itself is observed to be the biggest investment which such people were going to make into their respective education.

Moreover, it was also known that this financial program has a bigger role to play even in upcoming times. The CEO mentioned that in the United States, there are many financial literacy and education materials available and the nation had done a great job in this respect. Nevertheless, many people are not paying appropriate attention to this materials. Thus, it is quite essential to stop this irrational behaviour of people. This college found that when people generally are in college or getting into the college then they need to actually think regarding their financial decisions and financial transactions. For instance, whether they would be able to afford the fees of the college and the way they would be getting the funds required to get into their selected college that whether they are going to work with their parents or would opt for certain student loans. Moreover, even when they get into the college, many credit card companies approach to them and they are bombarded with such credit card applications. In addition to that, they are also bombarded with certain other things which they desire to purchase so as to fit in on their campus. These financial decisions are very crucial for them and they need to act very responsible while making such decisions. If they do not understand the importance of such decisions and do not make them effectively then they would be facing more challenging situations in future.

This program would be providing certificates to the students who would be taking participation in this financial program. The financial program offered by this said college was observed to be a self-pace virtual initiative or program. As per the CEO, they generally look for and approach to the ambassadors or the ones who were being trusted and respected by the classmates in a college. Subsequently, they train those ambassadors and individuals and then these people train their respective classmates as well as family members regarding such financial decisions. This enables the college to be a lifelong learning partner of such students and help them in making adequate financial decision at any point of time in their life. Furthermore, it is also found that there were certain advancements in the financial services provided by the financial service providers who had close connections with multicultural consumers.

The entire financial service sector was observed to be very focused on the ways in which it could be more responsive and provide essential things which such black community actually need. The one major such need they observed is awareness and so many financial service providers had responsively and actively partnered with this American college to fulfil this need. Likewise, it was also found that the women in such black community had a greater role to play in the financial decisions who had major perspective regarding their community. Thus, as per this article, providing them with adequate and effective financial education could actually help them to narrow their wealth gap, make viable financial decisions and achieve a viable position in the society.