Manus is faced with a shortage of cash at the Bank South Pacific branch in the province.
Since the festive period, the bank’s ATM machines have run short of money, causing inconvenience to the people of the small island province.
The main ATM machines at the BSP Branch in Lorengau, have not been operating as normal due to shortage of cash.
Even customers lining up inside the main bank to withdraw cash have been told on several occasions by bank tellers that withdrawal will not be possible and that they have to wait for deposits to be made in order to have sufficient cash for withdrawal.
When queried with BSP, the bank gave reason that despite the fact that it regularly places cash orders for Manus, the cash does not appear to circulate throughout the communities, or find its way back to the bank via local stores, admitting that from time to time the branch does run very low on cash, which will affect the ATMs.
On that note, its understood most of the big stores in Lorengau are owned by Asians, leaving the question of whether or not they are banking their profits to allow for cash to circulate in the province.
As an option to this problem, BSP is encouraging its customers to use the bank’s Electronic Banking Channels or e-Business, for the majority of their banking needs.
The bank said : “Using our EFTPoS merchants reduce the security risk of holding cash and reduce or remove the need to travel to a branch to make a deposit. The availability of EFTPoS can increase the volume of sales at their business as customers find electronic payment safe and convenient to do business.”
BSP is the only bank operating in Manus.
(Loop PNG File picture of Lorengau BSP ATM.)