Students in Schools across the U.S. Participate in SIFMA Foundation Competition that Fosters Financial Capability and Capital Markets Literacy

Washington, DC, February 5, 2018—SIFMA and the SIFMA Foundation today kicked off the 15^th annual Stock Market Game™ Capitol Hill Challenge (CHC) supported by Charles Schwab Foundation. This national 14-week financial education competition pairs individual members of Congress and financial capability programming with public schools in every congressional district nationwide to teach middle and high school students about saving, investing, and government.

Student teams invest a hypothetical $100,000 in listed stocks, bonds, and mutual funds and learn about the capital markets as they work together to maximize the return of their portfolios. The national top 10 teams will be recognized at an awards reception in Washington, D.C., on June 13. For the past four consecutive years, every member of Congress has participated in the program.

 “We are thrilled to kick off this year’s Capitol Hill Challenge, an important financial education competition that brings the capital markets to the classroom through the SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game,” said Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., SIFMA president & CEO. “The financial services industry is committed to helping students learn about the importance of saving and investing, while providing them with a solid foundation to achieve their future financial goals. We are proud to partner with Charles Schwab Foundation as the first-ever title sponsor of the Capitol Hill Challenge.”

“We live in an increasingly complex financial world, but many teens don’t receive the education they need to successfully manage their finances,” said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, President, Charles Schwab Foundation. “Financial education programs like the Capitol Hill Challenge help prepare students to make responsible financial decisions that will serve them throughout their lives, and as a long-time advocate for greater financial literacy, Schwab is proud to support the SIFMA Foundation as sponsor of this initiative.”

The competition uses the SIFMA Foundation’s curriculum-based Stock Market Game^™, a program to help students develop a better understanding of fiscal policymaking, the role of the capital markets, and global economic trends. The program is proven to raise student scores on tests of mathematics, economics and financial knowledge and to improve students’ and teachers’ personal financial behavior.

“The SIFMA Foundation is proud to offer an extraordinary opportunity for every member of Congress to pair up with their local schools to promote financial capability,” said Melanie Mortimer, president of the SIFMA Foundation. “America’s students are tomorrow’s leaders and by investing in them now, we are investing in the future prosperity of this nation.”

Since the Capitol Hill Challenge began in 2004, the program has made more than 4,100 matches of U.S. representatives and senators with schools, reaching more than 115,000 students. Middle and high school students from all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia are participating in this year’s competition.

For more details and to view weekly updates about this year’s participating schools, visit the Capitol Hill Challenge website at  www.stockmarketgame.org/capitol-hill-challenge.html

-30-

About SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game

SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game is a curriculum-based program where student teams in grades 4-12 learn about the global marketplace and long-term saving and investing fundamentals by using a hypothetical brokerage account. The program serves 15,000 teachers and 600,000 students annually. Teachers receive professional development and grade-level specific curriculum guides, lesson plans and newsletters to incorporate the program into their core mathematics, social studies, business, economics and language arts programs. For more on the Stock Market Game please visit: www.stockmarketgame.org/capitol-hill-challenge.html

About the SIFMA Foundation for Investor Education

The SIFMA Foundation is dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of the financial markets for individuals of all backgrounds, with a focus on youth.  Drawing on the support and expertise of the financial industry, the SIFMA Foundation provides financial education programs and tools that strengthen economic opportunities across communities and increase individuals’ access to the benefits of the global marketplace. Notable Foundation programs include the Stock Market Game, which has served 17 million students since it began in 1977, the InvestWrite national essay competition, the Capitol Hill Challenge, and Invest It Forward. For more information on the work of the SIFMA Foundation, visit http://www.sifma.org/foundation.

About SIFMA

SIFMA is the voice of the U.S. securities industry. We represent the broker-dealers, banks and asset managers whose nearly 1 million employees provide access to the capital markets, raising over $2.5 trillion for businesses and municipalities in the U.S., serving clients with over $20 trillion in assets and managing more than $67 trillion in assets for individual and institutional clients including mutual funds and retirement plans. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). For more information, visit http://www.sifma.org.

About Charles Schwab Foundation

Charles Schwab Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization funded by The Charles Schwab Corporation (Charles Schwab). Its mission is to create positive change through financial education, philanthropy, and volunteerism. More information is available at www.aboutschwab.com/community. The Charles Schwab Foundation is classified by the IRS as a charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation is neither a part of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (member SIPC) or its affiliates.

About Charles Schwab

At Charles Schwab, we believe in the power of investing to help individuals create a better tomorrow. We have a history of challenging the status quo in our industry, innovating in ways that benefit investors and the advisors and employers who serve them, and championing our clients’ goals with passion and integrity. More information is available at www.aboutschwab.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.