Friday, June 08, 2012

ANZ opens new branch on Lihir

ANZ Papua New Guinea yesterday (Thursday) set a new trend in banking with the introduction of its new ‘banktainer’ branch on the gold-rich island of Lihir in New Ireland province. The ANZ Lihir branch is housed in a converted shipping container, a first of its kind in PNG, and allows employees of the Lihir gold mine and local residents to complete banking transactions.

ANZ Lihir staff preparing the three ATM machines outside their ‘banktainer’ branch on the island yesterday.-Picture courtesy of ANZ
The opening was attended by Peter Aitsi, PNG country manager of Newcrest Mining Ltd, Mark Soipang, chairman of Mineral Resources Lihir (MRL) Capital Ltd, and other business and community leaders.
ANZ PNG CEO, Vishnu Mohan, together with his marketing manager John Solok, couldn’t not attend because of technical problems with the Air Niugini aircraft that was supposed to have flown to Lihir yesterday, however, hailed the ‘banktainer’ as a milestone on PNG banking.
“We created the idea of a ‘banktainer’ which is a full service transportable branch housed in a shipping container and a first-of-its-kind branch design,” Mohan said.
“ANZ is committed to further investment in our business in PNG and we’re pleased to provide the local business community and residents of Lihir with better access to banking services.
“Lihir is a critical natural resources hub in PNG and with the island’s unique geographic location, we developed an innovative banking solution which would provide the town with a full service branch that was also easily transportable.
“With a number of international companies based in Lihir, we’re now able to provide critical banking services and connect customers to our main branch in Port Moresby and to expertise across our regional network in Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand.”
ANZ’s Lihir branch offers a complete range of financial services, including home and investment loans, insurance and superannuation, and small business lending.
Customers also have access to three commercial and retail tellers, and three automatic teller machines(ATMs).
“With the success of the Lihir branch and its innovative design, we plan to open a second ‘banktainer’ in PNG by the end of this year,” Mohan said.
The branch is located at Block 830, Wide Road, Lihir.
Opening hours are 8.45am – 3pm, Monday to Friday.
ANZ commenced operations in PNG in 1910 and has 15 branches, more than 55 ATMs, nearly 1,000 EFTPOS terminals and 600 staff.

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