BPNG working with other central banks to know customers

By PETER ESILA
THE Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) is working closely with other reserve banks in the region on establishing “know your customers” (KYC) facilities to improve service and accessibility, an official says.
BPNG assistant governor Ellison Pidik said during the opening of Nambawan Savings and Loans Society’s office in Port Moresby last week, that digital innovation was important.
“BPNG is also working very hard and is looking at the situation quite closely,” Pidik said.
“We are working with the other eight central banks around the region in the South Pacific, including the Reserve Bank of Australia, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Reserve Bank of Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Timor-Leste to establish a KYC facility,” he said.
Pidik said KYC was important when it came to giving the service to the wider audience to identify and to know customers, members so as to access services everywhere.
“It is very important but there is the issue of digital identity.
“The Central Bank is moving forward about the importance of having a digital identity.
“This is very important where we see a lot of the banks are drawing back, a lot of the banks are closing their doors from many jurisdictions around the region, especially in Papua New Guinea.
“Banks are refusing to set up operations in places that they consider high risk in terms of issues, that is why we need an identification systems where we can to identify people to be able to use the service.”