BSP: Improving services our biggest challenge

Business

By CLARISSA MOI
The biggest challenge for Bank South Pacific in 2018 involved how to improve services to its customers around the country and the Pacific, chief executive officer Robin Fleming says.
“I know that BSP receives criticism for our services, some of which is well founded,” he said.
“However, what is often overlooked is the fact that our staff are committed to providing the best service possible for our customers. “
Fleming said improvements in BSP’s automated teller machines (ATM) uptime was a good example of continued focus on dealing with operational issues. “These issues included telecommunications connectivity, note quality, security issues associated with cash transportation and maintenance of ATMs which are located all around PNG.
“At the beginning, almost 20 per cent of our 308 ATMs were unavailable at the start of every day and by the end of the year this was down to around 7 per cent on average,” Fleming said.
“The Christmas-New Year period is a peak time for use of our ATMs by customers, and the uptime wasn’t quite as high as we would have hoped for at certain times over the public holidays.
“Many of our staff worked over the public holidays to ensure as much as possible that ATMs could be made available for our customers.
“What does need to be recognised by customers though is that security issues in certain locations can make it difficult for staff to top up cash in ATM’s during holiday periods.”
Fleming said reduction in bank fees for a large number of its retail customers was another great achievement for BSP.
He said this reflected the desire to provide customers with the lowest cost option to undertake their legitimate banking needs.
“No customer will now be charged a K3 monthly maintenance fee,” Fleming said.
“A number of dormant account fees have been eliminated and loan service fees for our housing loan customers have also been eliminated.
“Domestic liquidity provided a challenge for BSP during 2018.
“With a focus on deposit raising and utilisation of liquidity management facilities, BSP was able to continue to grow its loan portfolio, thus providing access to credit for many businesses and individuals at a time when other banks were placing constraints on credit availability.
“Credit growth is a critical component of a country’s economic growth and BSP has been instrumental in facilitating system lending growth.”