MCLEAN, Va., May 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Consumer advocacy group Consumer Action and leading credit card provider Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) today announced that their joint MoneyWi$e financial literacy partnership will provide free financial training to more than 60 non- profit community groups in the Midwest.

The two-day seminar kicks off in Chicago on May 5, 2004 with Consumer Action financial educators leading training sessions designed to teach local community groups how to talk to their clients about money and financial management. The sessions will focus on six areas of financial management including: basic banking; budgeting; understanding credit; credit repair; understanding bankruptcy; and talking to teens about money.

Featured speakers for the event include Elizabeth L. Handlin from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Rolando Berrelez of the Federal Trade Commission, and Lance Raphael Esq. of the Consumer Advocacy Center, P.C. Elizabeth Handlin will discuss Chicago's Money $mart Week, an event designed to help consumers better manage their finances and promote financial education programs, such as budgeting and using credit wisely. Additionally, Rolando Berrelez will tackle the issue of identity theft and Lance Raphael will be speaking on consumer rights, consumer credit related concerns and alternatives. A panel of non-profit representatives sharing best practices in achieving financial literacy in diverse communities will close the forum on May 6 2004.

"We created MoneyWi$e to provide consumers at all income levels with both the information and practical assistance they need to help better manage their finances," said Diana Don, Director of Financial Education at Capital One. "We are proud to continue to co-sponsor the MoneyWi$e program. We believe that this training seminar, combined with our new materials on understanding bankruptcy and talking to teens about money, will help support the efforts of Midwestern community organizations dedicated to engaging and educating at-risk consumers."

"We applaud the efforts of these Midwestern organizations to provide much- needed support and relevant information to their communities," said Ken McEldowney, Executive Director of Consumer Action. "This MoneyWi$e seminar is just one way we are able to assist these groups to continue to do what they do best: helping neighbors in their communities to help themselves."

MoneyWi$e: Materials, Training and Seminars

Consumer Action and Capital One first launched the MoneyWi$e partnership in November 2001. Since then, the program has produced and distributed a six- part series of MoneyWi$e educational materials to provide consumers with the building blocks for developing and honing personal finance skills, from saving and budgeting to balancing a checkbook, understanding the basics of credit and credit repair and how parents can talk to teenagers about money. By providing free brochures in multiple languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese), the MoneyWi$e program is able to address financial literacy across both income and ethnic barriers. More than one million brochures have been distributed to date.

In addition to distributing free materials online (www.money-wise.org) and through a network of 7,000 CBOs nationwide, the MoneyWi$e program also will provide a limited number of "train-the-trainer" seminars throughout the country during which Consumer Action staff members will meet with groups of CBOs to demonstrate how the MoneyWi$e materials and curriculum can be used most effectively.

About Capital One

Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a holding company whose principal subsidiaries, Capital One Bank and Capital One, F.S.B., offer consumer lending products and Capital One Auto Finance, Inc., offers automobile and other motor vehicle financing products. Capital One's subsidiaries collectively had 46.7 million managed accounts and $71.8 billion in managed loans outstanding as of March 31, 2004. Capital One, a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest providers of MasterCard and Visa credit cards in the world. Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 500 index.

About Consumer Action

Consumer Action is a non-profit, membership-based organization founded in San Francisco in 1971. Consumer Action serves consumers nationwide by advancing consumer rights, referring consumers to complaint-handling agencies and publishing multilingual educational materials. Consumer Action also advocates for consumers in the media and before lawmakers and annually conducts comparison surveys for consumers on credit cards, banking issues and telecommunications issues.