Assets mean economic security.  Yet impoverished families frequently lack the means to build assets.  Some are even sanctioned by public assistance programs from accumulating the wealth they need to escape poverty.  Oklahoma earned a “C” grade from the Corporation for Enterprise Development in a national report ranking states on opportunities for wealth creation and protection, particularly for low-income residents.  That same report says 23 percent of Oklahoma households are asset poor, lacking sufficient net worth to subsist at the poverty level for three months if their income was disrupted. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2011 Financial Education in Oklahoma Conference brings together financial education service providers and stakeholders to learn about programs offered in the state, share experiences, and identify new resources for financial education.  This conference is sponsored by the Oklahoma JumpStart Coalition and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Oklahoma City Branch and is titled “Frauds, Scams and Cons: Protecting Yourself and Your Assets through Financial Education.”  The event will take place on Wednesday, November 2nd at the Moore Norman Technology Center South Penn Campus from 9:00am to 4:00pm.

This year’s conference will arm educators, advocates and teachers with the information they need to identify and prevent financial cons, scams and frauds, and ideas for presenting this information to the communities and students they serve.  The conference is designed for: financial educators, teachers, bank and credit union staff, business and civic leaders, and all other individuals interested in improving financial education in Oklahoman.

Click here to register online or contact Annette Phillips at Annette.F.Phillips@kc.frb.org or (405)270-8464 by Tuesday, October 25. The $25 registration fee includes a continental breakfast and lunch buffet.  The event agenda can be accessed here.

Despite a modest recovery in the overall economy, a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City finds that low- and moderate-income populations continue to face increased hardship in Oklahoma and other states in the Tenth Federal Reserve District.

The FRB of Kansas City conducts a quarterly survey of non-profit and community organizations that serve low- and moderate-income (LMI) populations in the Tenth District.* Respondents are asked about the economic conditions of the clients they serve. The results are used to construct indices measuring the financial condition, service needs, jobs availability, affordable housing, and credit access of LMI populations.  The June report found conditions continuing to worsen for LMI populations in the 2nd quarter of 2011, although in some sectors the gap between the number of respondents reporting things are getting worse and those reporting things getting better is narrowing : Read the rest of this entry »

As home foreclosures continue to rise across the United States, loan modification scams are increasing at an alarming rate. Loan modification scams in Oklahoma have a devastating impact on families and communities.  A free luncheon event, “Loan Modification Scam Alert Summit” in Tulsa on Friday, April 8 from 11:30 -2:00pm will shed some light on the growing problem and share tools and resources to help combat loan scams.

The summit is sponsored by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Oklahoma City Branch, NeighborWorks America, the Oklahoma Homebuyer Education Association and Oklahoma Assets.  The summit will provide you with:

• Knowledge of foreclosure and loan modification scams,
• Tools and resources to protect you and your community, and
• Opportunity to network with service providers and community leaders engaged in this effort

The hosts encourage elected officials, community and faith-based leaders and housing agency representatives to support solutions that are reducing the devastating impact loan modification scams are having in Oklahoma.  The event will be held at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in downtown Tulsa on April 8 from 11:30 -2:00pm.  RSVP to Emerson Hall at Emhall@fdic.org by Thursday, March 31. Due to space limitations, pre-registration is required.

Oklahoma Assets will host a 60-minute webinar on promoting savings in Oklahoma on Thursday, March 24 from 2:00 to 3:00pm CDT.  The presentation, ‘Taking it to the Bank: Promoting Savings in Oklahoma,’ features expert speakers via conference call and on-line content exploring policies and programs that promote savings for low-income individuals and families.  Register for the webinar here.

This event is the first in a series of webinars produced by Oklahoma Assets, a coalition that aims to identify and strengthen programs and policies that help Oklahoma residents achieve economic security.  For more information about this event and the continuing series click here or email info@oklahomaassets.org Read the rest of this entry »

The 2010 Financial Education in Oklahoma conference will focus on the challenges of providing financial education to populations of diverse ethnicity, age and gender at a time of growing financial pressures. The conference, hosted by the Oklahoma City branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, will be held Wednesday, November 3 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Moore Norman Technology Center South Penn Campus, Oklahoma City. You can register online for the conference, which costs $25 and includes continental breakfast and lunch, by clicking here.

The conference will feature a keynote address by Kelvin Boston, a respected financial journalist, public speaker and best-selling author. He is the executive producer and host of Moneywise with Kelvin Boston, public television’s longest running multi-cultural financial affairs television series that explores the role of culture, race and gender. Boston is the author of Smart Money Moves for African Americans and Who’s Afraid To Be A Millionaire?

Other national speakers include:

• Dr. Billy Hensley, National Endowment for Financial Education, on professional development strategies for educators;
• Dr. Urvi Neelakantan, The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, on the impact of gender;
• Dr. Joyce Serido, Take Charge America Institute at the University of Arizona, on financial behaviors of youth and college students;
• Dr. Janice Wassel,American Institute of Financial Gerontology, on the needs of the elderly.

Click here to register, or contact Steve Shepelwich for additional information at steven.shepelwich@kc.frb.org.

If you work for or with a non-profit agency or philanthropic foundation, you’ll want to attend the next event in the Community Development Speaker Series hosted by  the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. On July 20th from 1:30 – 3:00 p.m., Rick Cohen, the national correspondent for Nonprofit Quarterly, will share his views about the current state of  philanthropy and the nonprofit sector  at the FRB’s Oklahoma City office, located at 228 Dean McGee Avenue.

After almost 8 years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), Rick Cohen began writing for Nonprofit Quarterly magazine (NPQ), the nation’s premier journal of nonprofit policy and practice, as NPQ’s national correspondent in 2006. His writing for NPQ and other outlets advocates for increased philanthropic giving and access for disadvantaged and disenfranchised constituencies.

To attend this free event, RSVP by July 9, 2010 to Annette Phillips at annette.f.phillips@kc.frb.org or (405) 270-8464. Refreshments will be served.

On Tuesday, May 18th, the Oklahoma City office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City will be hosting a video cast featuring Dr. Eric Belsky, one of the country’s leading experts in housing and urban issues. Dr. Eric Belsky is Executive Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University and lecturer in urban design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He will share his views about current housing challenges, policies, innovative initiatives and the role of consumer and mortgage credit in stabilizing the housing sector.

The May 18th video cast will be from 1:00 to 3:00 pm at the Federal Reserve Bank’s Oklahoma City office, located at 226 Dean A. McGee Avenue.  The event is free and open to the public; however, attendees are asked to RSVPat their earliest convenience to Annette Phillips at annette.f.phillips@kc.frb.org or (405) 270-8486. Refreshments will be served.

Last week, my colleagues and I were treated to a superb overview on the U.S. and Oklahoma economic outlook by Chad Wilkerson, an economist who heads up the Oklahoma City Branch Office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, as part of the Economic Security for Oklahomans meeting hosted by the Oklahoma Asset Building Coalition. Wilkerson’s message was fairly simple:

• The U.S. economy is very weak, but may be nearing the bottom. While unemployment is expected to rise even further over the coming months and Gross Domestic Product for 2009 may fall by the greatest amount in over 30 years, the declines may be stabilizing.
• The latest projections of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market committee are for “real GDP… to flatten out gradually over the second half of this year and then to expand slowly next year as the stresses in financial markets ease, the effects of fiscal stimulus take hold, inventory adjustments are worked through, and the correction in housing activity comes to an end.”
• Oklahoma was late to the economic downturn, but we are now shedding jobs at the same dismal rate as the nation as a whole, as can be seen from the chart.



Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

• Oklahoma’s unemployment rate has soared from 3.8 percent to 5.9 percent in just the past six months. Other indicators of of economic distress, such as home prices, foreclosures, and delinquent loans confirm that the recession is now in full swing locally (The Fed’s website presents a number of key economic indicators for Oklahoma through February; also, see our most recent Numbers You Need for an overview of economic trends).

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