Contactless banking well received: BSP

THE Papua New Guinea market has quickly adapted to 64 per cent Visa contactless transactions, significantly higher in comparison to other markets within the Asia Pacific, according to Bank South Pacific (BSP).
BSP digital general manager Nuni Kulu said this was higher than countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Kulu, when giving some insight into the bank’s commitment to digital innovation, said this was an impressive start for BSP digital payments journey.
“With an adoption rate over a four-year period for the PNG market, which has typically taken developed countries such as Australia, Singapore and New Zealand over eight years to achieve,” she said.
“As more goods and services are purchased using various electronic mediums, we transition away from the dependency to use of cash or cheques.
“Digital payments using cards on channels such as ATMs (automated teller machines) and Eftpos (electronic funds transfer at point of sales) have been in our markets for over three decades and our banked customers are still dependent on these traditional payment channels to carry out their everyday transactions.
“We, however, are seeing a rise in alternate payments.
“Alternative payment methods are bringing new ways for customers to transfer funds online using electronic funds transfer (EFT) for payments in a secure and password-protected manner.
“The customer is carrying out payments and banking on their readily accessible mobile devices.
“The accessibility to the simplest phones ‘one bang’ is driving a connected population who are gravitating to this style of payments.”