MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 2005--Consumer advocacy group Consumer Action and leading financial services company Capital One Financial (NYSE:COF) today announced that their joint MoneyWi$e financial literacy partnership will award stipends totaling $75,000 to community groups in 10 states. The move expands the reach of their partnership and will enable community non-profit educators to offer the MoneyWi$e financial education curriculum to more than 80,000 individuals.

"The MoneyWi$e program aims to provide consumers at all income levels with the information and practical assistance they need to understand and manage their finances," said Diana Don Colby, director of financial education at Capital One. "We're proud to offer this financial support to our nation's community groups and to provide the information consumers need to be financially fit."

This year, the MoneyWi$e program is awarding stipends to 28 community-based organizations teaching financial education in California, Texas, North Carolina, Illinois, Oklahoma, Florida, Minnesota, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. The stipends will help the organizations reach a broad base of individuals in a variety of financial situations, including college students, farm workers, first-time homebuyers, senior citizens, and individuals facing unemployment or homelessness.

"We applaud the work of these groups to help educate their neighbors," said Ken McEldowney, executive director of Consumer Action, the national consumer advocacy group that develops the MoneyWi$e program material. "We are proud to work with Capital One to support local non-profits through our MoneyWi$e partnership. Whether we're supplying informational material and teaching tools or the stipends groups need to get the job done, we recognize that these community groups are on the front line, making a real difference in the lives of individuals by helping them better understand the basics of personal finance."

MoneyWi$e: Materials, Training and Seminars

Consumer Action and Capital One first launched the MoneyWi$e partnership in November 2001. Since then, the program has produced and distributed an eight-part series of MoneyWi$e educational modules 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.

Consumer Action provides financial education to its community-based organization (CBOs) partners using two primary channels: through the distribution of free materials online (www.money-wise.org) and through its network of 7,500 community-based organizations (CBOs) nationwide. Working with this network, the MoneyWi$e program holds "train-the-trainer" seminars around the country where Consumer Action educates community group staff on how MoneyWi$e materials and curriculum can be used most effectively. Participants are invited to apply for stipends to use the MoneyWi$e materials more extensively in the community.

About Capital One

Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a bank holding company whose principal subsidiaries, Capital One Bank, Capital One, F.S.B. and Capital One Auto Finance, Inc. offer a variety of consumer lending products. Capital One's subsidiaries collectively had 48.9 million accounts and $83.0 billion in managed loans outstanding as of June 30, 2005. Capital One is a Fortune 500 company and, through its subsidiaries, 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 national non-profit education and advocacy 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.

CONTACT: Capital One Financial, McLean
Alison Athay, 206-239-0140
aathay@apcoworldwide.com

SOURCE: Capital One Financial