Banking and finance

Managing risk in Papua New Guinea

The insurance industry in PNG looks forward to consolidation, more growth and regulatory reform in the coming year. Optimism in PNG’s insurance sector is high with companies seeking to expand amid the strong economic growth of PNG. ‘The economy is very healthy,’ says Chris Giddings of Pacific Re, a Port Moresby-based reinsurance firm, and President […]
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Reaching out to the unbanked

Papua New Guinea’s strong financial services sector is becoming ever more sophisticated in servicing both the mass-market and premium ends of the market. ‘PNG continues to have a very, very strong banking sector. We are very lucky here to have the banks that we do. Investors want that, and they often don’t expect that there’s […]
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Papua New Guinea’s capital markets

After strong performances in 2009 and 2010, the Port Moresby Stock Exchange (POMSoX) experienced a tough 2011, as did many bourses around the world. The Kina Securities Index, which measures the health of PNG’s stock exchange, reported a 22.21% fall in 2011, but this fall should be seen in context. The region’s major exchanges—the Nikkei […]
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PNG Microfinance: lubricating the wheels of commerce

PNG Microfinance Ltd plays a vital role in the economy of Papua New Guinea’s Western Province by mobilising savings and providing financial services to many small businesses that are not able to meet the lending criteria of the major banks. Although it operates nationwide, it has a particular focus on Western Province, where it has […]
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BSP leads Papua New Guinea’s charge into the Solomons

Papua New Guinea firms are playing a key role in the Solomon Islands as investment floods in. The opening of a landmark new head office building in central Honiara marks the final stage of the takeover by Bank South Pacific (BSP) of the former National Bank of Solomon Islands (NBSI). It also symbolizes the pivotal […]
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Banking services reach Papua New Guinea’s rural population

With mobile phone use now widespread in PNG, the country’s largest bank is aiming to bring financial services to the ‘unbanked’ in PNG’s rural areas for the first time—an initiative that is expected to drive small business development. PNG-based Bank South Pacific (BSP), the Pacific’s largest bank, will this year ramp up its rural banking […]
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Westpac celebrates 100 years of banking in Papua New Guinea

On May 10, 1910 two young men established PNG’s first commercial bank. Burns Philp had been reluctantly providing banking services before Messers Pickering and Sefton arrived at Port Moresby harbour, and set up shop as the Bank of New South Wales in Douglas Street. Branches at Samarai, Rabaul, Kavieng, Salamua, Wau, Madang and Boroko were […]
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Case study: nation-building with superannuation

With confidence restored in Papua New Guinea’s superannuation sector, POSF Ltd, one of PNG’s two major superannuation companies, is proactively engaged in nation-building. The ‘wantok’ system of relationships in Papua New Guinea is not only complex but is an integral part of social existence. In essence, one salary-earner may have financial obligations to as many […]
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NASFUND: Cleaning up in superannuation

National Superannuation Fund, or NASFUND, is representative of the strong leadership now being shown by Papua New Guinea’s financial sector. It wasn’t always so, as the fund’s Chief Executive Officer Rod Mitchell tells Business Advantage. ‘In 1999, we had debts of K155 million and we had net assets of K125 million. Six years later we […]
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