HSBC is to fund the world’s first and largest global ageing study to be undertaken by the Oxford Institute of Ageing (OIA) at the University of Oxford. The OIA is the first international institute dedicated solely to understanding the implications of global population ageing.
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The study will involve interviewing some 24,000 people in 20 countries about their attitudes and behaviours to ageing and longevity. In the longer term the aim of the HSBC–OIA alliance is to build a cutting edge research base on global ageing which will provide valuable information for policy and corporate decision makers.
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Key demographic figures now suggest that not only are OECD countries ageing rapidly, but that Asia and Latin America will also have more people over 60 than under 15 within 30 to 40 years. There are 580 million people across the world aged 60 or over, a figure expected to almost double to 1 billion by 2020. Three quarters of these will be in Asia alone.
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The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Dr John Hood, said: ‘The merging of business and academic viewpoints on global ageing provides a tremendous opportunity to understand how demographic changes will affect ordinary people throughout the world.’
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Stephen Green, CEO of the HSBC Group, said: ‘Our alliance with the Oxford Institute of Ageing builds on the valuable work on understanding global demographic trends we began this year. As people’s aspirations for later life change, I believe that HSBC and Oxford University will be ideally positioned to understand personal and societal views on ageing and retirement.’
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The Director of the Institute of Ageing, Dr Sarah Harper, said: ‘The Oxford Institute of Ageing is delighted to be working with HSBC to advance the awareness of ageing issues. The rapid ageing of Asia in particular as its birth rate plummets to levels of previously only seen in Europe will have profound implications for the global economy.’
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Steve Troop, group head of Retirement Businesses at HSBC, said: ‘HSBC has identified this demographic shift as a long term business opportunity and is making a strategic commitment now to ensure that its product offers will continue to remain relevant to an increasingly older global customer base.’
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Notes to editors:
• The Oxford Institute of Ageing, founded in 2001, is a multidisciplinary Institute within the Social Sciences Division at the University of Oxford, which addresses the globalisation of ageing at the global, societal and individual level. It carries out research into population ageing, analysing the economic, social, political and demographic implications at both the national and international level. It also works with those in the corporate, policy, media and governance sectors advising in the implications of population ageing.
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• Dr Sarah Harper, Director of the Institute of Ageing, focuses her research on the impact of population ageing on families and working practices. Before joining the OIA, she was a professor in public policy at the University of Chicago and remains a research associate at the Centre of Demography and Economics, where she is responsible for developing their international work.
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• HSBC Holdings plc is headquartered in the UK. The HSBC Group serves over 110 million customers worldwide from more than 9,700 offices in 77 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$1,280 billion at 30 June 2005, HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.
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HSBC is marketed worldwide as ‘the world’s local bank’.
• In 2005, HSBC published the Future of Retirement report, a global study into the changing attitudes and behaviours to ageing and longevity. The study revealed that people the world over reject the notion of a mandatory retirement age and that the traditional model of retirement is now being replaced by the desire to live a blended lifestyle – incorporating periods of work, leisure and study. For further information please click on www.hsbc.com/futureofreturement.