BSP Financial Group Ltd

According to BSP Pacific Economic and Market Insight Q1 2022 Report, BSP Group General Manager for Corporate Banking, Peter Beswick said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is significantly affecting global commodities.

“One of the major impacts has been crude oil, with prices having increased from USD35 to USD120 BBL in the last 18 months (240%).

The announcement then had caused apprehension for staff from the PNGBC, wondering if there would be job cuts or position redundancies, and what the structure of the new organisation would be.

Now 20 years on, BSP is the largest commercial bank in Papua New Guinea, the South Pacific, and with two subsidiary branches in South East Asia.

BSP has more than 3,100 staff in PNG and 4,600 across the group. Some of the 366 staff who are still employees of the bank today, shared their experiences on the merger.

These include a reduction in the Kundu Package Account monthly fee for its personal account customers, changes to Cash Handling Fees on withdrawals and removal of cash handling fees on deposits effective as of 1st March 2022.

BSP Group CEO Robin Fleming said BSP will reduce the ‘all in one’ BSP Kundu Package Account monthly service fee by K1, from K9.50 to K8.50.

The Kundu Package Account is an account designed for customers who do multiple transactions per month and would prefer to pay a one monthly fee for these services..

BSP Group General Manager Corporate Bank, Peter Beswick said, “Announcements by investors in Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific has demonstrated strong international investment intentions that will lift economic activities for PNG and the South Pacific in 2022.”

He added that the mining companies continue to be an attractive investment destination and growth in mining industry is estimated to be 5.4%, which reflects the expected recommencement of Porgera and improvements in OK Tedi production and Wafi Golpu this year, 2022.

The Bank of South Pacific through its Rabaul town branch presented a cheque for K40,000 to interim President of Rabaul Rugby League (RRL), Michael Marum.

Before the cheque presentation on Thursday 3^rd of February, BSP Rabaul Branch Manager, David Pilai said BSP continues in the path to identify, develop and support young talents through sports.

The sponsorship support will go towards upgrading the second sports field that will be used in the competition. Trophies, sporting equipment and competition cost is covered in the sponsorship.

The 17 GDP trainees will undergo 12 months of attachment and rotation within various Strategic Business Units of the bank.

This on record is the second biggest group of BSP GDP participants. This program is open to Papua New Guinean Citizens in their final year of study at a local or overseas university in the following disciplines:

It was reported that of the 2100 SMEs that had applied for loans via the SME CESL facility, over 50 percent applicants were successful with nearly 30 percent of loans in the application stage and 20 percent got declined through the Bank’s normal credit assessment process, according to BSP Group CEO Robin Fleming.

Fleming said that BSP Financial Group Limited continues to fund loans using its own funds under the SME CESL facility, despite exceeding the K100m support funding provided by the Government.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic and the disruptions to regular school term breaks this year, only a handful of schools in NCD and Central Province were able to participate in the 2021 program.

Boys and girls between the ages of 8-10 from Pari Elementary school and teachers had a fun day taking part in the BSP Schools Cricket Bast games at the Colts ground.

These blasts introduced children as early as in elementary level to the game of cricket, teaching the fundamentals such as batting, bowling and fielding including the rules.

The company is running its campaign under theme ‘I am a feminist, I believe in social, economic and political equality.'  

The Global 16 days of Activism is an annual international campaign against gender-based violence against women.