NCSL eyeing banking arena

Business

By DALE LUMA
BANKING will be the next step for the Nasfund Contributors Savings and Loans (NCSL), says chairman Ian Tarutia.
Tarutia said yesterday that NCSL was currently conducting a feasibility study to gather the requirements and what it would take to venture into banking.
He said Papua New Guinea currently had only four commercial banks which provided opportunities for other operators.
“We have actually engaged a feasibility study and we are doing that now,” Tarutia said.
“This is to help guide us to see the steps that will be taken and what it would be like if we are going to go into that banking arena because there are a number of things that you need to fulfill as requirements.
“Things like adequate capital base, infrastructure spread and all requirements that go with a bank.
“So once we get to that stage, we will have a clearer picture but in terms of the intent, we believe we can do more than what the savings and loans legislation is allowing us to do. Hence our push to get into that arena.
“We have got membership growth and our governance overlay and just the infrastructure that we have at the moment is helping us get there so step by step.
“At this point in time, we need to have a clear indication on what we need to do to help us get into the banking sector.”
Tarutia said no savings and loans society had acquired a banking licence yet and NCSL was exploring the avenues that were available.
“We can take a specific step or targeted approach or we can be a bank for all and provide everything and these are the questions that we have asked ourselves and we are getting answers by engaging outside expertise and possibly by 2021, we will have an indication of where to go.”

3 comments

  • This is good as our savings are hard to go through like in the case of housing advance can be diverted or change to like vehicle advance as most of us live in settlements and we don’t have land titles as major requirement of applying for housing advance so if changed to vehicle advance we will have access..

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