Women are rising to the top of Southeast Asia’s Fintech future

Southeast Asia’s (SEA) aging population is changing the region’s key fintech audience, with the most active users expected to be 65+ by 2050.

New Robocash analysis expects that current users of fintech in SEA will be the industry’s main audience by 2050.

The most active fintech crowd aged 14 to 65 will move into the 65+ group, making it the largest two-fold increase in its share.

As of October 2022, there are around 426.5 million users of five fintech industries in the SEA region. These industries include alternative lending, digital investments, digital assets, digital banking and digital payments.

This is approximately 63 percent of the total population of SEA. By 2050, this figure will rise to 76 percent, as the graph below predicts.

Robocash predicts that the most active users of fintech today will maintain their use in the future. This, it says, will dramatically shift the main target audience of the industry by 2050.

The majority of future users will be women, who already outnumber men.

The changing demographics of SEA

The average age of the SEA population has risen significantly. Over the past 33 years, the number of people aged 65+ has increased by 190.2 per cent.

At the same time, the number of people between the ages of 15 and 64 grew by 76.7 per cent. However, the youngest branches of society, aged zero to 14, grew by only 3.6 percent.

In terms of total population, there are currently around 681 million people in SEA. The data estimates that by 2050 this number will increase by 17.9 percent to 803 million.

As today’s generations begin to age, the data indicates a shortage of young people aged zero to 14 in the future. Numbers in this age group will only grow by 1.7 per cent over the next 28 years.

With fewer young people and an aging population, the biggest increase is expected in the 65+ segment.

“By 2050, the most promising audience for fintech in SEA is expected to be women over 38,” the analysis confirms.

This proportion will grow significantly, reinforced by a life expectancy of 81 years. With an aging population, fintech industries such as digital payments, banking, insurance and healthcare could “grow significantly.”

Robocash is a group of companies offering fintech services in Asia and Europe. The group was founded in 2013 and focuses on offering technological financing solutions for those underserved by the traditional banking system.

Its corresponding research identifies lending and savings services as key enablers of digital finance in the Philippines.