Savings fall amidst pandemic: BankBazaar Savings Quotient 2020

CHENNAI, India - Sept. 17, 2020 - PRLog -- BankBazaar, India's leading online marketplace for financial products, issued the 'BankBazaar Savings Quotient' as a follow-up to their 'BankBazaar Aspiration Index 2020' (BAI 2020) released in July. While the BAI 2020 attempted to understand the Indian working professionals from the perspective of their aspirations, the Savings Quotient presents a reality check on their perceived capability to achieve it by rendering a coherent picture of their financial habits.

The BankBazaar Savings Quotient reveals how savings have shrunk against the combined onslaught of the recession, pandemic, and lockdown. The higher consumer inflation coupled with job losses, paycuts and furloughs mean people have less money to spend despite putting a break on discretionary expenses. Consequently, savings have shrunk compared to earlier years, with this year's average savings at 32%: a 6% drop compared to last year's 38%. Unsurprisingly, the drop was highest among the core earners: the Moneymooner aged between 28-34 years and Wealth Warriors aged 35-45 years, who faced the brunt of the slowdown. Moneymooner saw the wallet share of savings fall by 7.5% to 30.5% from 38%. The Wealth Warriors followed closely, as their savings fell from 37% of their income last year to 30% this year – a steep fall of 7%. The Early Jobbers were comparatively better off, with an average wallet share of 34.7%: a drop of 5.3%.

Unsurprisingly, given the current pandemic situation, market fluctuations and job uncertainties are making people focus on long-term goals for self and family, putting aside discretionary goals like luxury and travel. Says Adhil Shetty, Co-founder and CEO, BankBazaar: "Data shows people are reacting to the uncertainties of the last few months with a greater degree of planning in financial matters than before. When you look at the savings data, predictably, emergency savings have become the biggest reason for saving for 70% people vs 32% last time. At the same time, as falling returns make an impact, there is increased focus on long-term planning for retirement (46%) and securing children's inheritance (47%) compared to earlier. We are seeing close to 25% people are planning for a corpus of Rs.2 Cr, compared to 20% last year. This is a heartening trend, as it points to long-term, goal-based planning that is more rewarding in the long run."

BankBazaar [https://www.bankbazaar.com/] (https://www.bankbazaar.com/aspiration-index-2020.html) is India's first neutral online marketplace that gives instant customized offers on loans and credit cards. It also provides free consumer credit score on its portal. BankBazaar has so far raised USD 116 M in funding from investors such as Experian, WSV, Eight Roads, Sequoia Capital, Walden International and Amazon.