Bank launching platform to promote financial inclusion

A DIGITAL platform to promote and improve financial inclusion in Papua New Guinea will be launched early next year.
The YuTru digital identification framework is expected to provide a fast, secure and simple form of identification compatible with most
banks.
Scheme coordinator Isikeli Taureka told The National yesterday that they were currently in the building process and the launch of operations would be done next year which was when the banks would come on board and start signing up for shares.
“We’ll start working and putting everything together, deciding on the technology and then we’ll do testing with the Bank of PNG to make sure that whatever processes we use are in compliance with the requirements and we’ll test that in the (BPNG) sandbox,” he said.
“We’ll actually launch it in the first quarter of 2020. At the moment we are building.”
Taureka said the platform would encourage more people to participate in the digital economy.
“When we talk about the digital economy there are many things happening out there but one of the fundamental building blocks of that is a digital identity scheme for people to use when doing transactions and business online.”
Bank of PNG Governor Loi Bakani said as country’s banking regulator they were they were committed to improvement of banking services.
“There are so many innovations happening around the country but we want to take those that are related to financial services in the financial sector,” Bakani said.
“We see YuTru as one of the vehicles to drive this through.”
Meanwhile, Taureka said YuTru was not a static identity document like a passport, drivers licence or national identity card, but was the basis for a seamless digital experience for shared customers.