Scott Bessent Takes Financial Literacy Campaign to the G20

ASHEVILLE, N.C., Sept. 2, 2026 — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is taking his financial literacy campaign to the Group of 20, asking finance ministers from the world’s largest economies to consider new ways to help people manage money, save for the future, and protect themselves from scams and fraud. During a G20 gathering in Asheville, North Carolina, Bessent announced U.S. sponsorship of the Financial Literacy Solutions Sprint, a competition seeking technology- and data-enabled ideas from across G20 countries.

The initiative extends a campaign Bessent began after becoming Treasury secretary. One of his first moves was to launch Financial Literacy Month, promoting basic financial skills such as budgeting, saving and protecting against fraud. Bessent has also connected his interest in the subject to his childhood in rural South Carolina. His father, a real estate developer, lost generations of Bessent family wealth after taking on excessive financial obligations. At the same time, Bessent began working at age 9 as a cafeteria busboy and helping set up chairs and umbrellas at the beach.

Technology Takes on Financial Education

The Financial Literacy Solutions Sprint is intended to identify technology- and data-enabled solutions that can help people gain financial knowledge about spending, saving, and investing. Four finalists will be selected before one or two winners are chosen and recognized during the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Bangkok in October.

The competition gives participating countries an opportunity to present digital tools designed to reach people with financial information. The Treasury is seeking ideas that can make financial education more accessible while addressing different financial systems and consumer needs across the G20. The initiative reflects a growing interest among policymakers in using technology to deliver financial information beyond traditional classroom and community programs.

Trump Accounts Provide a U.S. Example

Bessent has pointed to Trump Accounts as a program that other countries could consider when examining ways to encourage saving from an early age. The initiative provides a $1,000 investment account for babies born during President Donald Trump’s second term. Treasury officials say roughly 7 million children are enrolled, with 86% of participants coming from families earning less than $200,000 a year.

Trump Accounts connect financial education with an actual investment account, giving families an opportunity to become familiar with saving, investing, and compound growth. Bessent has presented the program as a way to establish a financial foundation during childhood. The idea also fits with his personal interest in wealth creation and financial security, shaped in part by his family’s experience with lost wealth and his own early exposure to work and earning money.

Photo credit: AP

Critics Question What Education Can Solve

The Treasury campaign has drawn criticism from people who argue that financial literacy cannot resolve financial hardship when households do not have enough disposable income. Knowing how to prepare a budget, save or invest does little for families whose earnings are already consumed by housing, food, transportation, health care and other basic expenses. From this perspective, financial education can provide useful information without addressing the economic circumstances that limit a household’s ability to act on that information.

Public sentiment toward the U.S. economy adds to the debate. About seven in 10 U.S. adults described the country’s economy as poor in July polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. High living costs and elevated gas prices linked to the war in Iran have added to household concerns. Julie Morgan, CEO of the Century Foundation, a left-leaning public policy research organization, said Americans cannot educate themselves out of their current financial difficulties and criticized Bessent over policies she says have contributed to those struggles.

Bessent’s G20 initiative therefore puts financial education into a wider debate over household finances. Better knowledge can help people understand budgeting, saving, investing and fraud prevention, but knowledge does not create additional income or reduce the cost of necessities. The Financial Literacy Solutions Sprint will give governments and organizations across the G20 an opportunity to test whether technology and data can make financial education more useful and accessible, while leaving policymakers to consider how those efforts fit with the economic realities facing households.