Bank efforts to promote financial literacy were described during a panel discussion at CBA's Community Reinvestment Conference. A full transcript of the session is available at CBA's web site, cbanet.org.

Denise Nix Thompson, Vice President and full-time financial literacy specialist at J.P. Morgan Chase, said that after spending several months reviewing 200 organizations, "it became clear to me that there is plenty of good content out there." What was lacking was sharing and access, she said.

Collaborating with Jumpstart Coalition, Morgan-Chase has provided a series of grants to develop web-based content. Part of that includes content on their own site, dubbed `Smart Sense,' with separate youth and adult home pages, she said.

Grant recipients must adhere to standards and benchmarks developed by Jumpstart, available on their web site, Jumpstart.org.

Morgan-Chase is also working with the New Jersey Coalition for Personal Finance to disseminate a CD-ROM based program focused on predatory lending.