Bank will not reintroduce forgone fees despite levy

BANK South Pacific (BSP) Financial Group Ltd has forgone about K91 million in fees and charges but will not reinstitute them despite the added tax burden, chief executive officer Robin Fleming says.
Fleming said BSP had not increased any fees since 2014.
“BSP continues to review its fees and charges and has not increased a single fee in PNG since 2014. In total, the estimate of accumulative fees, every year since 2014, is K91 million,” he said yesterday during the presentation of the company’s first quarter report 2022.
When asked whether BSP would consider bringing back some fees to cater for the K190 million in taxes that the bank would be paying the Government, Fleming said: “We’ve made a strong commitment from day one, we are not going to increase fees.
“So we have actually put K91 million back into the hands of our customers. Even though that has not always been recognised. We are not going to increase fees and charges to recover the banking tax (additional company tax). We are not going to penalise customers on something that is outside of their control.”
Meanwhile, it was also highlighted in the report that BSP’s cost in computing has increased, as BSP continued to invest in internet technology delivery which were almost offset by lower costs in other categories.