Singaporeans show the greatest interest in personal finance management across Southeast Asia

SINGAPORE: Among the 11 countries in Southeast Asia, Singapore has shown the greatest interest in personal finance management, analysts from fintech services group UnaFinancial have said.

The interest Singaporeans show is driven by the rising number of wealthy individuals living in Singapore and who are searching for investment tools, UnaFinancial said in a media release on Wednesday (Mar 27).

Taking a look into search requests about personal finance management within the Southeast Asian region, the analysts calculated the indicator of interest, representing a ratio of all requests in a given country to its average population over the past year. With an indicator of 9.8 per cent, searchers in Singapore showed the greatest interest in personal finance management, followed by those in Thailand (6.7 per cent), with Brunei coming in a distant third at 3.1 per cent.

Notably, the younger generations—Millennials, those born from 1981 to 1996, and Gen Z, those born between 1997 and 2012—have made their mark in this aspect.

“All three countries are characterized with a growing supply of investment tools, high levels of accumulated wealth, and a large share of Millenials and Gen Z (54 per cent), who are looking for financial management tools. Singapore’s performance is driven by a rising income per capita and a growing number of wealthy people, who are interested in investment tools,” said UnaFinancial.

However, the company added that in Thailand, one of the main reasons for people to attempt to preserve their wealth is the depreciation of the local currency.

In October, the Bangkok Post noted the depreciation of the Thai baht by 6.8 per cent, making it the third worst performer in the region after the Japanese yen and Korean won, which weakened by 12 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively.

On the other end of the scale are Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, the three countries with the lowest indicator of interest in personal finance management. However, these three countries have also shown the fastest growth in search requests.

UnaFinancial noted that in the last 12 months, the number of search queries in relation to personal finance management in Laos has jumped by 50 per cent, and  Cambodia and Myanmar have also seen similar large leaps: 38.4 per cent and 34.8 per cent, respectively.

“According to the analysts, the growth is driven by changes in financial literacy of the population, influenced by the development of respective programs for growing micro-enterprises in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, measures to increase financial literacy in Cambodia, and post-pandemic recovery of the investment industry in Laos,” UnaFinancial added. /TISG

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