Greg Pawson

Kina shareholders approve proposed acquisition

In a statement, CEO Greg Pawson said this was a great show of confidence by the shareholders.

“We are very excited about this opportunity, and creating a stronger and more effective banking competitor for PNG and Fiji. The acquisition is perfectly aligned with our current strategy to be a dynamic and innovative full-service regional bank with a market leading digital platform.”

Business confidence impacted by LNG delay: CEO

Kina Bank CEO, Greg Pawson, said this during the Prime Minister’s Back to Business Breakfast in Port Moresby on January 30th.

It was a fully packed event with the business community for the Prime Minister’s first major engagement for 2020.

In his speech, Pawson early on highlighted the major pressing issue viewed by the business sector; the delay in LNG project decisions and its potential impact.

Pawson said the delay will affect potential investment and hinder prospective growth.

Bringing jobs back to PNG: Kina Bank

Chief Executive Officer Greg Pawson said at a customer function recently in Port Moresby that the Bank was engaged in a major program of transformation that will see jobs created in the fields of operations, technology, credit and risk.

“Since we announced the acquisition of ANZ PNG’s Retail, Commercial and SME business, we have been expanding our operations. We’ve been building out our back-office functions to support the new products and services we will introduce throughout the year – from credit cards to mobile payment options.

Kina introduces online account activation

The revolutionary service allows customers to fill in the usual details online and upload copies of their identification documents for Kina Bank staff to verify.

And with a simple click of the button, the application process is complete.

Customers only need to visit one of Kina Bank’s newly refurbished state-of-the-art concept branches to confirm their identity and collect their new Kina Bank card.

Customers will then have immediate access to Kina Bank’s range of exceptional products and services.

Impediments to hi-tech

Pawson said this inadequacy makes it difficult to implement world leading technology in PNG.

He said there is lot of opportunities in PNG, but a lot of work needs to be done.

Pawson said Kina had just completed an upgrade of its core banking system and this allows them to roll out advanced technology in PNG.

However they aren’t able to do this due to limited power and telecommunications.

“It’s frustrating. There are some quite amazing technology that we are working on at the moment that would be world leading in terms of what were able to do.

Yates retires from KSL

The announcement yesterday is in line with the market notice on June 22nd 2017 of Yates’ planned retirement and transition to Greg Pawson as the new CEO.

Kina Board chairman, Isikeli Taureka, thanked Yates for his long and distinguished service of over 20 years to Kina and to the Papua New Guinean financial sector.

Taureka said his achievements have been immense and crowned by the successful IPO of Kina on the ASX and POMSoX in 2015, and the acquisition of Maybank PNG by Kina in the same year.

Big dreams for Kina Group

Kina chief executive officer, Greg Pawson, says as the only company offering diverse financial services, they are keen to take advantage of that going into 2018.

Pawson says there is the desire to grow the business and they will continue investments in leading-edge technology.

Yesterday the company launched its ‘Retail and Corporate Mobile Banking Apps’ and ‘Corporate Internet Banking’.

“We will continue the investment particularly around similar applications that you see here today,” says Pawson.