At a media briefing attended by InvestorDaily yesterday, Deloitte access economies partner Ian Harper said Australia’s opportune location on the doorstep of Asia along with an ageing Asian population growing wealthier, will drive demand for Australia’s financial services.
“As the financial systems become more sophisticated up there [Asia], people will seek a wider range of services and we’ll be in a good position to supply them,” said Mr Harper.
According to Deloitte research, three billion people in Asia will have joined the middle class by 2030, and by 2050 the region will account for more than half the world’s financial assets.
“The reputation and robustness of our regulatory system, together with our domestic success in building the fourth largest superannuation asset pool in the world, are attractive propositions to the growing Asian middle classes,” said Deloitte wealth management leader Neil Brown.
Mr Harper said that Australia’s advantage stemmed from decisions implemented by the Labor government in the 1980s regarding contributory superannuation.
Young Australians and people from overseas are being sent to Sydney to train in areas such as funds management due to our recognised expertise, he added.
“That particular set of skills will become more important, not less, as the Asian countries develop and age; you put those two things together and it places us in a very strong position,” said Mr Harper.
By seeking to deal with issues associated with managing longevity risk and sequencing risk ourselves, he said Australia would become an increasing focus for attention from our foreign neighbours, interested in seeing how these issues are resolved here.
“We’re a great microcosm, a bit of a workshop in some respects for these types of problems, so whether it's health insurance or longevity insurance, funds accumulation, moving from the accumulation phase to the superannuation drawdown phase, we’re going to do these things in advance of our near neighbours,” said Mr Harper.
He said Australia was fortunate to have a spectrum of countries in the region that are not only growing wealthier, but having to deal with the problems associated with ageing and becoming richer.
“We have that microcosm in Australia with nearly 40 years of experience of accumulation and management, and acknowledged expertise, that’s the opportunity,” he said.
