BSP to spend K500mil
The National, Tuesday 4th June 2013
By GYNNIE KERO
BANK South Pacific will spend more than K500 million in the next five years, outgoing chief executive Ian Clyne says.
He said this during the launching of the Wantok Moni product last Friday, adding that the spending will cover five years.
“BSP has a large total capital expenditure budget in excess of K500 million … about half of this is for operational building purposes over a five-year period.”
Clyne said the Wantok Moni product, which was launched last Friday, was part of a multi-million kina project involving several other related initiatives such as the BSP agency network establishment, Eftpos rollout and BSP Rural branches.
He said that the bank had also started piloting the queue master project in three branches in Port Moresby.
“The queue master project is a relatively cost efficient project when considered on its own.
“It involved the acquisition of a simple ticketing system and hardware … but when considered in combination with other branch efficiency initiatives, such as enhanced automation cheque processing, these will cost us millions.
“The queue master aimed to improve the processing of the queues in branches.
“It is being piloted in the NCD branches which experience the most dense or concentrated customer traffic, and most likely will be rolled out to other branches in the network.
“It (queue master) records and provides data about customer transactions and times, which are factored into decisions that management can take about counter and branch resource configuration, to better service customers in branches.
Clyne emphasised that improving access to finance and banking services was a priority for the government and BSP has been applauded for helping expand financial services throughout PNG through its various initiatives and solutions.