CFPB Financial Education Discussion Group

Request for Approval under the “GENERIC CLEARANCE FOR QUALITATIVE
CONSUMER EDUCATION, ENGAGEMENT, AND EXPERIENCE INFORMATION
COLLECTIONS” (OMB Control Number: 3170-0036)
TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: CFPB Financial Education Discussion Group
PURPOSE:
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-203)
(the Dodd-Frank Act) established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the CFPB) to
regulate the offering and provision of consumer products or services under federal consumer
financial laws. Section 1013(d) of the Dodd-Frank Act established within the CFPB the Office of
Financial Education (OFE), which is responsible for developing and implementing initiatives
intended to educate and empower consumers to make better informed financial decisions.
In meeting its statutory mandates, the CFPB seeks to promote financial education strategies and
practices that improve consumer decision-making and financial well-being. To do this, the
CFPB seeks to develop a deeper understanding of effective financial education strategies in order
to help inform future work at the CFPB on consumer financial decision-making. This
information will also provide useful information on financial education practices that can be
shared with providers and practitioners of financial education programs, potentially leading to
better financial decision-making outcomes for consumers.
To efficiently gather information about effective practices, the CFPB is establishing a Financial
Education Discussion Group. This is an online discussion forum that is intended to facilitate
information exchange among financial educators and other practitioners. This group will be
implemented on LinkedIn, an online professional network that allows users to create groups with
features such as discussion forums, polls, and other tools.
OFE has a listserve of approximately 1000 financial educators and other stakeholders who have
expressed interest in the financial education work of the CFPB. This group will be invited to
join the CFPB Financial Education Discussion Group on LinkedIn when the group launches in
August. In addition, the CFPB Office of Servicemember Affairs, Office of Older Americans,
and Office of Financial Empowerment will invite their stakeholders who are engaged in financial
education activities to join the CFPB Financial Education Discussion Group as well.
Joining the discussion group is completely voluntary, and responding to discussion questions and
polls posted to the group is voluntary and optional. LinkedIn currently has about 225 million
members worldwide. Based on an informal staff scan of the LinkedIn network, LinkedIn is a
very prevalent tool used by the types of individuals and organizations the CFPB hopes to reach.
Our expectation is that approximately 500 financial education practitioners and others
stakeholders will join the LinkedIn discussion group in the first six months.
To gather information and, stimulate discussion, and facilitate the sharing of best practices, the
CFPB will periodically post polling and discussion questions to members of this discussion
group. We anticipate that not more than 30 percent of participants, on average, would respond to
polls and discussion questions, based on response rates seen in similar social media groups.

1

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:
While the CFPB Financial Education Discussion Group is open to the general public, we
anticipate that respondents will primarily be:
•
•
•

Practitioners, researchers, and service providers who provide financial education and
capability programs and services;
Other service providers, such as social workers, teachers, etc., who have interactions with
consumers on topics related to financial education; and
Other organizations, entities, and individuals that are involved in the financial education
field (for example, financial institutions, philanthropic foundations, researchers, etc.).

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check all that apply)
[ ] In-Person Meeting
[ ] Interview
[ ] Focus Group
[X] Social Media Poll

[ ] Qualitative Survey
[ ] Small Discussion Group
[X] Online Discussion Forum
[ ] Other: ______________________

CERTIFICATION:
By submitting this document, the Bureau certifies the following to be true:
1. The collection is voluntary.
2. The collection is low-burden for respondents.
3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal
agencies.
4. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential
policy decisions.
5. The results will not be used to measure regulatory compliance or for program evaluation.

Personally Identifiable Information:
1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No
2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the
Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ X ] No
3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

Gifts or Payments:
Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to
participants? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

2

Assurances of Confidentiality:
1. Will a pledge of confidentiality be made to respondents? [ ] Yes [ X ] No
2. If Yes, please cite the statue, regulation, or contractual terms supporting the pledge.

JUSTIFICATION OF SENSITIVE QUESTIONS (if applicable):
Not applicable.
BURDEN HOURS
Category of Respondent
Financial educators and others involved in the
financial education field

Totals

Number of
Participation
Respondents
Time
150
2
minutes/question
x 45 questions
150

//////////////////////////

FEDERAL COST: There are no additional costs to the Federal Government.

3

Burden
Hours
225

225 hours

Strategies for Selecting Respondents
Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential
respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe?
[ X] Yes
[ ] No
If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If
the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of
respondents and how you will select them?
The polling and discussion questions will be posed to the entire membership of the CFPB
Financial Education Discussion Group. Members of this group will have the option to answer
some, all, or none of the questions posed to the group. We do not expect that those who answer
any particular information collection question are representative of the entire membership of the
CFPB Financial Education Discussion Group, nor do we expect that the members of the CFPB
Financial Education Discussion Group are representative of the entire universe of financial
education practitioners. As such, we will consider this information collection to be an avenue to
learn about issues and trends in the financial education field, but not as a way to collect data that
are representative of the experiences of all financial education practitioners.

Information Collection Procedures
Please summarize the procedures that will be used to collect data from respondents.
CFPB staff will serve as moderators of the CFPB Financial Education Discussion Group. The
moderators of the CFPB Financial Education Forum will routinely post polls and discussion
questions to members of the forum, in order to facilitate discussion and the sharing of best
practices in financial education. Responding to the polls and discussion questions will be
completely optional. Members who choose to respond to a particular query will either check off
the most accurate response(s) via the LinkedIn polling function, or answer the discussion
question by posting a response to the question (or to a previous respondent’s comments) as an
online posting that will be distributed to all members of the discussion group. The CFPB
moderators will periodically screen the comments using a Digital Conversations Guide created
by the CFPB and will remove any comments that:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Contain abusive, vulgar, offensive, threatening, or harassing language;
Contain language that would violate the law if published;
Contain threats, personal attacks, hate speech or defamatory statements;
Contain material that the CFPB knows or has reason to believe is copyrighted or
proprietary without clear indication of permission to copy the material from the original
source;
Suggest or encourage illegal activity;
Contain personally identifiable information about the poster or another person;
Are repetitive postings or “spam”;
Are off-topic of the community discussion topics; or
Promote or endorse a commenter’s own commercial services, products, or entities.

4

Copies of all comments, including those that are removed by the moderators, will be retained by
the CFPB.
We expect to post approximately 2-3 polling or discussion questions per week on the CFPB
Financial Education Discussion Group site. The questions included as part of this submission
are expected to cover approximately the first three months of the CFPB Financial Education
Discussion Group’s implementation. At that point, we will submit another Information
Collection Request for Approval for additional questions and polls for the CFPB Financial
Education Discussion Group. The frequency of the questions may be adjusted at that point based
on what we learn from the first three months of implementation of the CFPB Financial Education
Discussion Group.

Administration of the Instrument
1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)
[ X ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media
[ ] Telephone
[ ] In-person
[ ] Mail
[ ] Other, Explain
2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ ] Yes [ X ] No
Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the
request.

5

CFPB Financial Education Discussion Group Poll and Discussion Questions
Poll questions:
1. What CFPB tool do you find most useful?
a. Paying for College
b. Ask CFPB
c. Consumer Response (Submit a complaint)
d. Brochures and products
e. Other
2. In which financial education area do you work?
a. General financial education
b. Youth and/or school-based
c. Military servicemembers and/or veterans
d. Workplace
e. Financial capability research
f. Other
3. In times of financial distress, whom do your clients turn to first?
a. Family and friends
b. Clergy
c. Online resources
d. Financial institutions
e. Financial education service providers
4. How comfortable are you in using web/social media tools in your work?
a. Very
b. Moderate
c. Low
d. Not at all
5. How do you learn about “best practices” in financial education?
a. Conferences or webinars
b. Research literature
c. Via coworkers
d. Newsletters/online resources
6. How do you learn about new practices in financial education?
a. Conferences or webinars
b. Research literature
c. Via coworkers at your organization
d. Newsletters/online resources
7. In your work, which do you see as the biggest source of credit card debt?
a. Living expenses
b. Medical expenses
c. Unemployment
d. Non-essential expenses
8. Of the following, which is the most common way your clients deal with unexpected
expenses?
a. Savings
b. Tax refund
c. Work extra hours or get an extra job
d. Borrow money from friends or family
e. Loan

6

9. Do you partner with community organizations in providing financial education? If so,
what kind?
a. Religious
b. Social services
c. Other
d. Don’t partner with community organizations
10. What do you do more of, education or counseling/coaching?
a. Education
b. Counseling or coaching

Discussion board questions:
1. We plan to add additional subgroups to the CFPB Financial Education Discussion Group.
What subgroup topics would interest you?
2. What are the most effective elements of your favorite financial education materials?
3. If you had the resources to create your ideal financial education tool, what would it be or
do?
4. What tools, webinar topics, research, etc. are on your “wish list”?
5. Tell us about some of the promising practices in financial education that are working well
at your organization.
6. Think about the best conference or workshop related to financial education you ever
attended. What made it great?
7. What do effective financial education programs have in common?
8. What are some of the most important “teachable moments” when consumers are most
open to financial education?
9. What kind of research or data would you like to see related to financial education?
10. How do you help consumers deal with information overload and complexity on financial
products and issues?
11. What are some of the most common “hassle factors” that affect consumer financial
behavior?
12. How do you measure success in your financial education work?
13. How do you help consumers overcome inertia and change their approaches to financial
decision-making?
14. What are some creative ways to help consumers with goal-setting?
15. The stigma that is sometimes associated with financial education can deter people from
seeking help. What strategies have you used to address this issue?
16. How do you incorporate technology into your financial education activities?
17. What made you decide to pursue a career in financial education?
18. Think about your favorite success story as a financial educator. What made it so
successful?
19. What are some of your most effective practices for youth and post-secondary financial
education?
20. What are some of your most effective practices for workplace financial education?
21. What are some ways financial education could incorporate social media?
22. Have you noticed any trends over the past six months in the financial issues that
consumers you interact with are facing?
23. What strategies are you using to educate your consumers on credit card issues? 1
1

Questions 23-27 address issues on which the CFPB’s Consumer Response complaint hotline takes complaints.

7

24. What strategies are you using to educate your consumers on mortgage and homebuying
issues?
25. What strategies are you using to educate your consumers on student loan issues?
26. What strategies are you using to educate your consumers on using checking accounts and
other transactional banking products?
27. What strategies are you using to educate your consumers on debt collection issues?
28. If resources were not a constraint, what changes would you make to your current
financial education program(s)?
29. Are you using e-learning as a mode for your learners? If so, what kind of e-learning
strategies and best practices are you using?
30. Do you teach via webinar? If so, what have you found are best practices in using
webinars for consumer education?
31. What training topics do you want/need for your/your staff’s professional development?
32. How do you keep up on changes and trends in the financial education field?
33. In your work, what are some strategies for engaging and supporting parents in having
money conversations at home with their children? Has it worked?
34. What are some examples of effective hands-on learning or experiential learning
opportunities geared at children and youth?
35. What recent research studies or research findings around youth financial education and
capability do you find interesting?

The following Paperwork Reduction Act statement will be provided on a subpage of the
CFPB LinkedIn page that has information on the discussion group.
Paperwork Reduction Act
According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to
a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The OMB control number for this collection is 3170-0036.
It expires on 06/30/2016. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average approximately 2 minutes
per response, including the time for reviewing any instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data
needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Responding to this collection of information is voluntary.
Comments regarding this collection of information, including the estimated response time, suggestions for improving the usefulness of
the information, or suggestions for reducing the burden to respond to this collection should be submitted to Bureau at the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (Attention: PRA Office), 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20552, or by email to [email protected].

8