New Delhi, Jul 14 (IANS): The Centre proposes to develop the Gujarat-based GIFT International Financial Services Centres (IFSC) as a 'Longevity Finance Hub' to cater to the investment and wealth management needs of the 'silver generation' comprising individuals aged 60 years and older.

As part of this initiative, the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has constituted an Expert Committee to recommend approach towards development of a Longevity Finance Hub and provide a road map for this end.

The expert committee is being co-chaired by Bank of America's President and Country Head (India), Kaku Nakhate, and New India Assurance Company Ltd's former CMD Gopalan Srinivasan, and committee members comprise leaders from the entire longevity finance ecosystem, including areas such as banking, insurance, wealth management, FinTech, legal, compliance, and management consultancy.

The push to create a longevity finance hub in India has come in wake of latest statistics that suggests there are one billion people in the silver generation (a global cohort of individuals aged 60 and older) with a combined spending power of $15 trillion and the size is ever expanding.

This has attracted the attention of governments across the globe to channelise a large part of this fund into their respective countries offering tailor-made financial products made for this generation. India is also looking to attract this vast pool of funds into its IFSC set up specifically to route global investments into India.

Estimates also suggests that by 2040, there will be more members of the silver generation than people under 20. This demographic change will throw open new challenges and opportunities especially in the areas of wealth management, health, insurance, and other investment products.