Pidik: Protecting rights of consumers vital

 PROTECTING the rights of consumers of financial services contributes to the financial stability of an economy, an expert says.

Bank of Papua New Guinea assistant governor Elision Pidik told the opening of a two-day consumer protection and market conduct workshop for financial services in Port Moresby that consumer protection and market conduct in the financial sector were not new to Papua New Guinea. 

“When the first financial institution was created during colonial times, this epitomised the genesis of consumer protection and market conduct issues in Papua New Guinea, and the importance of addressing them,” Pidik said.

He said the Government intervened with the enactment of the Central Banking Act of 2000 and the Independent Consumer and Competition Act to protect consumers of financial service.

“The Central Banking Act (Section 7b) specifies the need to formulate financial regulation and prudential standards to ensure stability of the financial system in PNG,” he said.  

“In all practical purposes, this section empowers the Central Bank to develop policies to protect the financial system, whether it is for prudential purposes or non-prudential concerns such as consumer protection and market conduct,” he told the workshop.