BPNG plans to change way societies do business

THE Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) is changing the way savings and loans societies do business, enabling transactions to be made directly from society to members and offering services that commercial banks are.
Representative Philip Naru told the Nambawan Savings and Loan Society Ltd annual meeting this week that: “We will be introducing what they call REPS or retail payments settlement, which will likely be rolled out in July.
“When that happens, all transactions will be done directly from the society to the members instead of going through the banks.
“Most of the transactions are channelled through the member’s bank accounts. This time through this process (REPS), the society will issue members with cards and everything else that the banks are offering. We also have the National Permits Act which is now enforced to enable faster cheque processing.”
Naru said they were also doing some work on consumer protection to help customers with their complaints.
“We are trying to set up some places or avenues where customers can go and make their complaints regarding fees and charges,” he said.
“Under the new act we want to give some flexibility to the savings and loan society to do things that other financial institutions are doing.
“We want to open it up for societies to go into technology and introduce cards and become like any other financial institution.”
Bank of PNG has a new building in Lae which will serve as a new cash distribution centre, according to Naru.