The Portfolio Self-Reliance conference is celebrating an anniversary as this is the tenth year when one of Hungary's top self-reliance conferences will present visitors with the hottest topics in self-reliance and savings.
Social and economic life have both changed a lot in just a few months as the coronavirus outbreak spread globally. This has also affected Hungarians' propensity for saving and self-reliance through lost income and market effects.
The Hungarian self-reliance market is experiencing an interesting period that is in many ways also a watershed. As retail government securities have gained ground, they have completely redrawn the future profitability and outlook of the sector. Household savings are growing, but the majority of that is absorbed by government securities, while the stock of cash is breaking one record after another, and the future of retirement savings also remains uncertain. These are especially interesting questions now in the shadow of the coronavirus, which has also shaken the previously unwavering market of retail government securities, while investment funds lost substantial amounts not just through market losses but also through capital withdrawal, and retirement savings also had to absorb significant losses.
To top it off, increasingly strict regulatory expectations and rules as well as newly entering market players and fintechs are also causing serious headache for incumbents. If the coronavirus crisis has highlighted one thing, it is that the future is in digitalisation.
The morning sections of our event will offer a hybrid professional programme where we will be looking to answer how service providers in the Hungarian savings and self-reliance market will be able to shake off the negative effects of the coronavirus, which digitalisation trends may represent the future, what will happen to retirement savings, whether the sector will be able to reinvent itself and put up a substantial fight in the race for savings, and what new approach is required in the fund manager and private banking market. All of the above are exciting questions, which will be answered at our conference by prominent leaders of the finance sector and players in the savings market. The morning programme will also be available online, guaranteeing wider access and interactivity between online and offline participants.
In the afternoon, we will be offering an exciting programme for private and institutional investors that will help them make decisions on investments. The conference will continue in the afternoon with an online retail club, where market professionals will reveal to a wider audience of retail and private investors what savings and portfolios are considered crisis-proof, how self-reliance for retirement should begin, and what the most intriguing stock market stories and megatrends currently shaping the world are.
