The Financial Literacy and Education Commission is requesting comments on a proposed set of financial education core competencies.

As a part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, the Commission is required to review the national strategy to promote basic financial literacy and education. As a part of this review the Commission determined that there is a need to develop core competencies for consumers and financial education providers.

The development of core competencies is a fundamental step in establishing a clear understanding about what individuals should know and the basic concepts program providers should cover. In addition the competencies should establish a baseline of knowledge.

The intention of the competencies is to define what consumers should know and be able to do to successfully understand and make informed decisions about their personal finances. To this end, the Commission has identified five core concept areas: (1) earning, (2) spending, (3) saving, (4) borrowing, and (5) protecting against risk as well as specific core competencies for each area.

The deadline for comments regarding whether the list of Core Competencies is complete and whether there are portions that should be deleted, revised, or expanded is September 12.  The request for comments is one of several steps in the validation phase of the development of the competencies.