PFRC

Andrea Finney speaks at launch of new personal finance research unit in South Africa

Andrea Finney, Research Fellow at the Personal Finance Research Centre, was in Pretoria last week to speak at a conference to launch the new Personal Finance Research Unit, based at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The Unit is collaboration between UNISA’s School of Accounting Sciences and Bureau for Market Research. The other external speakers at the conference were from the South Africa Reserve Bank and the South African Revenue Service.

Andrea was invited to the conference to talk about the Genworth Index of Financial Vulnerability. Now in its fifth year, the Index tracks consumer financial vulnerability in 14 countries in Europe, three in North America and Australia in a survey of nearly 14,000 households. The fifth edition of the Genworth Index will be produced by the Personal Finance Research Centre in autumn 2011. A consumer vulnerability index inspired by the Genworth Index was carried out for the first time in South Africa in 2010. 

During her visit to UNISA’s Personal Finance Research Unit, Andrea was also involved in discussions about South Africa’s new survey to measure assets, liabilities, income and expenditure. Andrea previously advised the Office of National Statistics on the development of Britain’s Wealth and Assets Survey, as well as being one of only two external authors in the official report of the first wave of survey data.