Vietnamese among most financially stressed in Asia Pacific: survey

Sixty seven percent of respondents said they are stressed about their finances, second only to Thailand (68 percent), according to the survey recently released by Dutch fintech company Backbase.

The least stressed countries are Australia and New Zealand (45 percent), Singapore (46 percent) and the Philippines (51 percent).

The top challenges Vietnamese face in managing their finances are building savings (67 percent), managing debts (62 percent) and planning for retirement (48 percent).

Finance management is an issue for many Vietnamese. The country has the second lowest level of satisfaction with saving tools for managing their money at 43 percent.

Only 54 percent of Vietnamese go to financial news, research websites or mobile apps to seek information for personal finances, investments or retirement planning, while the average ratio is 70 percent.

Bank leaders said the top challenges they face in developing digital money management tools in Vietnam are a lack of understanding of how to change customer behavior and unsure how to partner with fintech companies.

The survey polled 900 retail banking consumers and 450 senior business decision-makers and influencers in financial organizations in February and March.

They were in 10 countries: Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.