Bessent pitches US-backed financial literacy competition to world’s largest economies

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters at the G20 Finance Ministerial in Asheville, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026.(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) By FATIMA HUSSEIN Updated 10:15 PM MESZ, September 1, 2026 Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Asheville, N.C. (AP) — Driven in part by his own experience with poverty as a child, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pitching a financial literacy campaign to leaders of the world’s largest economies and suggesting an investment account program begun under President Donald Trump as a model for it. As he hosted finance ministers from rich and developing nations in the G20, Bessent on Tuesday announced U.S. sponsorship for a competition called the “Financial Literacy Solutions Sprint.” The competition is intended to discover and showcase “innovative technology- and data-enabled solutions” developed across the Group of 20 countries to strengthen financial literacy. Four finalists will be pared to one or two winning teams and will be recognized during the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in October in Bangkok. Bessent points to the creation of Trump Accounts, a program that provides $1,000 in investment accounts to babies born during Trump’s second term, as a model other nations should follow. Treasury says roughly 7 million children are enrolled and 86% of participants are from families earning less than $200,000 per year. The secretary often talks about his humble beginnings in rural South Carolina, where he got his first jobs at age 9 as a busboy at a cafeteria and setting up chairs and umbrellas on the beach. His father, a real estate developer, had lost generations of Bessent family wealth by overleveraging his obligations. Bessent huddles with G20 to try to rally allies on Iran as tariffs strain ties 5 MIN READ US plans to sanction another bank in effort to clamp down on Iran transactions, Bessent tells AP 2 MIN READ 30 US Treasury blocks certain journalists from G20 meeting in North Carolina 2 MIN READ 30 One of Bessent’s first moves as Treasury secretary was to launch Financial Literacy Month to teach people the basics of building a workable budget, saving for the future and protecting themselves from scammers and fraudsters. Critics of his efforts argue that the problem is less about people not knowing how to invest and more about them not having enough spare income to do so. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults say the country’s economy is “poor,” according to July polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The finding underscores Americans’ continued unhappiness with the cost of living, which is being compounded by high gas prices due to the war in Iran. “Americans can’t educate themselves out of their current financial crises, and it’s hypocritical for the Treasury Secretary to place the blame on ordinary Americans’ financial decisions when their struggles are the direct result of decisions that Scott Bessent himself has made,” said Julie Morgan, CEO of the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank focused on public policy research. FATIMA HUSSEIN Hussein reports on the U.S. Treasury Department for The Associated Press. She covers tax policy, sanctions and any issue that relates to money. twitter mailto