Online financial services rising amongst older Southeast Asians

The Philippines has its largest share of 41 to 60 year old users of online lending services.

Southeast Asian Baby Boomers and Generation X are increasingly catching up on online financing services, with their share of users growing to between 15.86% to 26%, aRobocash study found.

The Philippines saw the greatest surge in 41- to 60-year-old users of online lending services, with Robocash borrowers aged 41 to 50 growing to 15.86% in December 2019 from 14.67% in May 2018. Its share of 51 to 60 year old customers peaked 4% in December last year from 1.15% in May 2018. Territorial fragmentation seems to be the main driver for the growth, as well as younger generations leading by example on delving into fintech services.

Indonesia took second place by the share of Gen X and Baby Boomer customers, where 41-50 year olds comprised 15.39% of users in December last year, outpacing the Philippines in terms of average growth by 1.8%. However, its share of 51-60 year olds lags, contracting 2.27% (0.45% in May 2018) despite a monthly increase of 5%.

Vietnam and India displayed similar growth but had higher dynamics, Robocash noted, with the share of older Vietnamese turning to online lending rising at 26% per month versus India’s 8.3%. However, older users still have a lot of catching up to do, with the number of 41 to 50 year old clients reaching 4.63% in Vietnam and 9.33% in India, both in December 2019, compared to 2.71% and 4.44% in January that year respectively.

The maturity of Vietnam’s population and the insufficient penetration of banking services are causes for the low levels of usage amongst the older generations in both countries, the report explained.