ANZ eyes PNG’s ‘unbankable’

By MALUM NALU
ANZ’s new chief executive officer Papua New Guinea and North West Pacific Mark Baker is looking at taking banking to the “unbankable” Papua New Guineans through internet and cell phones.
Baker told The National yesterday  one of ANZ’s major plans was “bringing the unbanked into the formal part of the economy”.
“We’ll be launching a cell phone banking proposition into the market,” he said.
“That will be coming in early next year.
“That’s a significant project for us.
“We’ll have a very large spend on that project.
“We want to get it right.
“For the country to be developed in the area of banking, all three (major commercial) banks will have to go at it.
“That’s a very significant project for us which is taking up a lot of time and will continue to do so over the next five to six months.”
Baker hinted that ANZ’s soon-to-be-released mobile banking service would have a lot of features.
“It’s a Pacific-wide project as well and PNG will be the largest user of it,” he said.
 “From a feature point of view, people can be very excited.
“It’s in line with what Bank of PNG wants to do, which is reaching out to the ‘unbanked’.”
Baker also highlighted:
l    ANZ has reduced the number of international personnel from 27 to 19 over the last three years;
l    A number of PNG and Pacific nationals are in senior management positions in its PNG  operations.
These include head of retail, head of markets, chief operating officer, head of legal and compliance and  head of commercial banking;
l    A commitment to developing local capability in all the markets in which it operates and we have some of PNG’s top talent working for ANZ;
l    A vision is to be the best-connected and most-respected bank across the Asia Pacific region and for ANZ it makes good business sense to have Pacific and PNG nationals supporting and driving its business strategy for the long-term; and
l    Commitment to developing and supporting women in leadership.
There are three women on ANZ PNG management board including head of legal and compliance, chief operating officer and head of communications.
Baker will oversee operations in PNG, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
He was previously state director corporate banking in Queensland.
Prior to joining ANZ in 2009, Baker worked for HSBC across a range of functions in senior executive roles in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, India and Bahrain.
Baker replaces Vishnu Mohan, who is now chief executive Fiji and Pacific Central region.