AUGUSTA – The state Bureau of Financial Institutions is launching a “Financial Literacy Project” to help students, teachers and parents acquire the knowledge needed to successfully manage their finances and avoid common pitfalls, Superintendent Lloyd P. LaFountain III announced.

The first stage of the project includes online educational resources and consumer protection guides.

The Financial Institutions’ “Teacher’s Page” provides access to approximately 20 financial literacy programs that can be tailored to fit curriculum requirements.

The “Consumer Library” section of the bureau’s Web site offers a broad selection of free publications designed to help students and consumers learn more about specific financial questions and problems.

The project also includes a “Speakers Program” that will offer opportunities for schools to request expert speakers for classroom presentations.

For more information, call the Bureau at 800-965-5235 or write to Bureau of Financial Institutions, 36 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333. Consumers may also reach the bureau at www.maine.gov/pfr.

Leftbehind:

MMA speaker to focus on economic climate

CASTINE – Maine Maritime Academy’s Loeb-Sullivan School of International Business and Logistics will hold a lecture by Jerry Bazata, vice president of global business banking for Bank of America from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, in Delano Auditorium in Leavitt Hall on the MMA campus.

Bazata will discuss the topic “Current Financial Markets: What Do You Need to Know as a Business Owner.” Other topics he plans to address include ways to reduce transaction exposure, issues regarding terms of sale for goods and services, the overall economy and its effects in the Northeast and in Maine.

For more information, contact professor Elaine Potoker at Elaine.potoker@mma.edu or 326-2121.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

– FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS