Public urged to gain financial literacy as population ages

Kasikornbank executive vice president Ampol Polohakul said many countries were facing financial crisis amid global economic volatility, for which Thailand should also prepare itself, especially in the area of financial literacy. Most Thais have little understanding about how to invest properly and what risks they might face when they are retired.
In general, people should save at least 10 per cent of their income for their retirement, he said.
KBank promotes knowledge about savings and investment through the financial-planning service it calls K-WePlan. It has increased the channels for financial consultancy through e-mail and social networks to make such services easy to access by mainstream customers.
The bank is cooperating with Money & Banking magazine to promote knowledge about financial services and encourage them to start saving through the many investment instruments available.
“For home-buyers, when they acquire loans at KBank, we suggest they get mortgage insurance,” Ampol said.
Santi Viriyarangsarit, editor-in-chief of Money & Banking magazine, said the general public had not invested in mutual funds much. Yet as society ages, financial literacy becomes more essential to ensure security in retirement.
Ampol said that with the current economic volatility, it was a good time for people who have little knowledge about financial matters to learn how to invest properly.
However, economic uncertainty has not yet affected spending, especially via credit cards, which is a key indicator of the current economic sentiment.
“When spending through credit cards shows a significant drop, it will mean people are worried about the economic downturn.
“It might take a month or two before we can conclude that global economic volatility has had an impact on the spending of Thai people,” he said.