In 2025, financial literacy among U.S. adults fell to its lowest level in over a decade. This decline carries consequences for New Yorkers trying to build credit, weather emergencies, start businesses, purchase a home, and plan for their futures.
In communities that have historically been excluded from wealth-building opportunities and financial resources, these gaps in financial literacy widen over generations. Cintia Duffoo, founder of MC Seguros, is committed to bridging these gaps, planting seeds of financial knowledge throughout her community in the Bronx.
MC Seguros, a financial services business based in Mott Haven, helps residents navigate tax preparation, insurance, credit, budgeting, and the very decisions that shape their day-to-day lives. Through one-on-one support and individualized plans, Cintia works to translate unfamiliar financial concepts into practical knowledge for immigrant and first-generation families, low-income residents, and community members navigating the U.S. financial landscape for the first time.
“When I started out, I didn’t know anything about money. I knew how to work hard and make it, but I didn’t know what to do with any of it,” Cintia explains. “We can’t build a culture of investing and saving if nobody is there to teach us how.”
For CitizensNYC and M&T Bank, investment in small business owners like Cintia extends farther than flexible funding and capacity-building support. At the core of our partnership, we’ve recognized that lasting change beings with those closest to the challenges they seek to address.
This year, CitizensNYC’s partnership with M&T Bank provided MC Seguros with the resources to expand their capacity, and it is Cintia’s intimate understanding of her community that guides those resources into the right hands. Through the grant, Cintia is offering free financial checkups, bilingual workshops for local small business owners, and tailored financial literacy programming for youth in her community.
Together, CitizensNYC and M&T Bank invest in a future where financial knowledge reaches families earlier and travels further, changing what residents know today and what they can pass forward tomorrow.
