Graying Asia: How Aging Is Reshaping Banking

IMF Working Papers, July 17, 2026

Source details

Paper explores how demographic shifts, particularly population aging, are reshaping banking in Asia-Pacific’s bank-dominated financial systems.
Uses household surveys as well as bank-level and country-level panel data.
Main empirical finding: aging populations are associated with shifts in bank portfolios away from traditional loans (with lower loan-to-deposit and loan-to-asset ratios), driven by changes in households’ financial behavior.
Documents effects on banks’ funding structures, profitability, and risk profiles, with implications for financial stability.
Provides new evidence on cross-border dynamics: demographic divergence spurs asset reallocation toward younger economies.
Highlights evolving risks and supervisory challenges as demographic transitions unfold unevenly across economies.

Data sources: household surveys; bank-level panel data; country-level panel data.
Approach: empirical analysis linking demographic indicators (population aging) to bank portfolio composition, funding, profitability, and risk metrics.

Aging populations are associated with shifts in bank portfolios away from traditional loans.
Associated portfolio changes include lower loan-to-deposit ratios and lower loan-to-asset ratios.
Household financial behavior changes are identified as a driver of banks’ portfolio shifts.
Demographic divergence across countries leads to cross-border asset reallocation toward younger economies.

Changes in household behavior and portfolio composition affect banks’ funding structures.
Profitability and risk profiles of banks are altered as portfolios move away from traditional lending.
These dynamics carry implications for financial stability in bank-dominated systems.
Supervisory challenges are likely to evolve as demographic transitions proceed unevenly across economies.

Primary focus: Asia-Pacific bank-dominated financial systems.
Broader relevance noted for: Europe; Middle East and Central Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global.
Subjects and keywords include: Aging, Demographic change, Financial institutions, Financial statements, Loans, Population and demographics, Public financial management (PFM), bank balance sheets, bank portfolio, cross-border asset allocation, household financial behavior.

IMF Working Paper — Graying Asia: How Aging Is Reshaping Banking (Working Paper No. 2026/150, July 17, 2026)