Sydney-boy Thornton leaves banking sector after four decades

RETIRED Bank South Pacific Group retail general manager Paul Thornton says that he is blessed to have worked with many Papua New Guineans over the last 42 years.
“Back then, each customer would have a cardboard ledger, and we had to post their transactions onto that ledger,” Thornton said.
“Sometimes it took us three months to balance the passbook savings ledger – it was very tedious.”
Thornton called it a day on Dec 1 and while he has gone through many memorable and colourful events in his line of work, one stood out.
“I can still vividly recall seeing an elderly woman use her SaveCard for the first time at an ATM (automated teller machine).
“The encouragement she received from other customers in the queue to help her complete the transaction and the smile on her face when the ATM dispensed her card and cash was priceless.”
He had seen the most critical change in terms of access to one’s account.
The most critical change had been people having access to their bank accounts 24 hours a day, seven days a week from virtually anywhere in PNG or the world.
It was only three years after PNG’s Independence, when this Sydney boy moved to PNG, as 21-year-old in 1978.
He went straight to the Mt Hagen branch of the then Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation (PNGBC).
Thornton was amazed at the beauty of the country given more than 50 per cent of the people walking around Mt Hagen town then were still dressed in traditional gear.
“When I first started, customers could only access their accounts at their own branch from 9am to 2pm Monday to Thursday and 9am to 5pm on a Friday,” Thornton said.
“If you did not get to the bank during those hours, nogat moni (no money).”
His first job was as officer in charge of the Coin Distribution Centre at Mt Hagen’s PNGBC branch.
“What I did each day was to ‘mute’ K2 notes.
“During my time at Mt Hagen, I filled various roles including staff training coordinator, loans officer and passbook adviser,” Thornton said. “I came to the Port Moresby branch in 1981 and was the passbook adviser and then lending officer.
“I eventually filled the role of manager branch operations and systems and then executive manager strategic development.”
A major change in the banking landscape that Thornton was a key part of was the transition into electronic banking with the SaveCard.
“Because PNGBC had a long history with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), we asked if we could visit CBA to learn about the key issues and required structures to support electronic banking.
“Myself and a few Papua New Guinean colleagues spent two weeks with CBA but the assistance they gave us probably saved us 12 months-worth of research and development if we had done it ourselves.”
In 1997, Thornton started the first licenced microfinance bank in PNG – Village Finance Ltd.
He moved on to oversee the creation of the OTDF Microfinance for the Ok Tedi Development Foundation and in 2004, led the establishment of the PNG Microfinance for PNG Sustainable Development Programme.
“I came to BSP in 2010 where we set up BSP Rural,” he said.
“I was later appointed deputy general manager retail, then general manager network and finally, group general manager retail.
“All of the great events in my life have happened in PNG, the most important when I met Theresa,” Thornton highlighted of his wife from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
“A number of us had come down from Mt Hagen to attend a wedding at the United Church at Boroko Drive. Theresa was in the crowd and I saw her and I said ‘that’s the one,” Paul told BSP staff during his farewell at the Waigani head office Port Moresby.
“I’d like to say thank you to BSP and to Papua New Guinea for being so kind and generous to Theresa and I.
“I’m not going to say farewell or goodbye, it’s lukim yu gen (see you again).”