Economics of long-term household savings in spotlight

MANAMA: The economics of long-term savings for households will be the main theme of the Arab Household Long-term Savings Conference 2021 hosted in Bahrain in May.

“Several reports by reputed consultancy groups almost unanimously point to the fact that at least one-third of people in Mena do not save any money; two-thirds of people do not save enough or regularly, and close to 80pc of people say they don’t feel confident about their financial future,” said Ebrahim K Ebrahim, the chief executive of Fintech Robos, the organiser of the conference.

According to him there’s a direct relationship between household savings ratios and healthy economy, and between household savings ratios and future social security.

“If savings are key to a healthy economy, then they must be reasonably high and sustainable, if any region is to fulfil its potential for higher real income and greater standard of living,” Mr Ebrahim pointed out.

To be livestreamed from Bahrain on May 25 and 26, the “first-of-its-kind” conference’s main purpose is to create a rich debate and information-sharing platform on the significance of long-term savings for household financial resilience.

The expert also wants to increase awareness about the need to save, savings solutions offered in the region, and global innovation in the sector.

“Simply put, we aim to build better stakeholder awareness and place long-term savings and household financial resilience on the agenda for all those concerned,” he said.

The event will feature speakers from leading regional banks, insurers, wealth managers, advisers, digital challengers, economic think-tanks and policy analysts.

Mr Ebrahim expects the conference to deliver a holistic assessment of the household long-term savings landscape, help identify characteristics of ideal savings vehicles, and provide comparative analysis of incumbent institutions solutions versus those offered by the new wave of digital challengers.

Surveys have shown that digital savings solutions are already changing people’s attitude towards savings and putting them in control of their money.

Customers are appreciating the ease and convenience of being able to keep tabs on their money in real-time.

The key question, which Mr Ebrahim hopes the conference will try to answer, is: How do the digital propositions compare to the incumbent big institutions in terms of safety and sustainability?

Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/935994