Savings and Loans Societies have been urged to establish proper governance frameworks in their organisations so that monies belonging to its members are protected.
Assistant Governor to the Bank of PNG, Ellison Pidik, said this recently when issuing 16 licensing certificates to Savings & Loans Society companies.
It was a milestones event as it was the first time in history that the Central Bank issued a high number of licences.
As part of the reforms under the new Savings and Loan Societies Act 2015, all existing societies are required to incorporate as a company and be issued a new licence to continue operating.
Of the 21 savings and loan societies, including Federation of Savings and Loans Societies, 16 met the requirements and were licenced.
These companies include:
- Air Niugini S&LS
- Alekano S&LS
- Central Bank Officers S&LS
- East New Britain S&LS Limited
- Finance and Private Sector S&LS Limited
- Manus S&LS Limited
- Mining & Petroleum S&LS Limited
- Nambawan Super S&LS Limited
- NASFUND Contributors S&LS Limited
- Niu Ailan S&LS
- PNG Ports Corporation S&LS
- PNG Power Staff S&LS
- PNG Water Board Staff S&LS
- Post, Telikom and PANGTEL S&LS
- Rural Development Bank S&LS
- Teachers S&LS
Congratulating the companies, Pidik urged them to have in place proper governance frameworks so that monies are managed well.
“We are going to now embark on the seriousness of governance,” said Pidik.
“Governance is very critical from the hierarchy to the engine room. So we’ve got to have some face to face dialogue and one to one conversation and we are going to make sure that everyone understands clearly what the contents of governance are.
“So one of the challenges that we are going to face immediately is to build good strong governance framework for each of our societies.”
As of June 2019, the current Savings and Loans industry has:
- Total assets at around K1.2 billion
- Total savings has grown to K671.5 million
- Total loans to members stand at K392.8 million
- Total membership 321,000