Financial Capability in Southeast Asia

Speaker: Dr Irni Johan, Lecturer, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, IPB University, Indonesia

Financialisation and the rapid advances in information technology have created a more complex and dynamic financial sector. The role of the government in providing social protection has been reduced, and more responsibility for personal finance is required. The need of financial capability is increasing. Studies on financial capability have been carried out across the world, in both advanced and emerging economies, including in Southeast Asia. This topic has gained attention for number of reasons, for example, the rise of unsecured loans, risky credit, and new financial products; misleading information, or fraud and scams, financial problems such as bankruptcy and increasing debt levels, and increasing individual responsibility to make informed financial decisions.

This research attempts to contribute to better understanding of financial capability, by exploring the current state of financial capability in selected Southeast Asian countries in a comparative context. By doing so, we will be able to understand why financial capability is higher in some countries or among some groups within a population.