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Products

Central to any children’s savings initiative is a financial product or account—preferably one that is simple and easy to use, can be made available to all children, restricts withdrawals to an asset-building use, and has the potential for deposits to grow significantly during children’s pre-adult years. CFED assists in the development and promotion of the availability of scalable, incented savings products for children and youth. In partnership with local credit unions, regional banks, state 529 programs and national financial institutions, CFED helps identify and create appropriate savings tools for our community partners and others interested in launching children’s savings initiatives.

If you represent a bank, credit union or other financial institution and are interested in starting or participating in a children’s savings program, please contact Leigh Tivol at ltivol@cfed.org for more information about our services.

Innovation with Citibank

Through the Partnership for College Completion, CFED and our partners have worked closely with Citi, which has designed an innovative new savings account product especially to incentivize the efforts of low-income students and families saving for college. This account includes several unique features that accommodate the needs of a children’s savings initiative, including:

• Streamlined account opening process
• Ability to calculate matches on student savings, up to a predetermined limit
• Online account statements through a specially designed web portal, showing savings and incentives earned
• Deposit-only; restricted for college-related expenses

Over the next few years, this account product will be used to serve thousands of children in schools across the country – a powerful example of effective public-private partnership. By demonstrating what is possible at scale, CFED, our partners, and Citi are sparking innovation in private financial markets to create savings tools appropriate for large-scale asset-building initiatives.