By MALUM NALU
Bank of South Pacific chief executive officer Ian Clyne says there are valid reasons for the fees it charges.
He justified BSP’s rates in reply to questions from The National following complaints from the public, particularly about the automatic telling machine (ATM) fees.
Clyne said the cost of banking services in PNG were very high, including ATMs, and most of these costs were borne by corporate clients as compared to retail clients.
“The retail customers should at least be covering the costs of the service we provide,” he said.
“The PNGBC (BSP’s predecessor) used to give a lot of services for free, but, of course, the PNGBC ran into serious financial trouble.
“So, as I said, if you look at the issue of service fees, the cost of an ATM withdrawal is 75t, the cost of a betelnut is K1.
“That ATM costs a lot of money; it’s a very expensive piece of equipment.
“We have a K3 million system that monitors the performance of the ATM.
“It’s a very expensive exercise to manage maintain an efficient working ATM network, therefore, there needs to be a fee.
“And the fee we charge in Papua New Guinea is about 20% of the fee charged for the same service in Australia or even in Africa
“I clearly understand the majority of the people because incomes are low, and they view some of the service fees as being high.
“Papua New Guineans, in most instances, enjoy very, very low fee structures.”
Apart from the 75t withdrawal fee, other ATM fees charged by BSP are for ATM cash withdrawal at other banks (K2.50), ATM cash withdrawal at other banks using Visa Debit Card (K15), ATM phone top up (75t), ATM balance enquiry (50t), ATM balance enquiry at other banks using VDC (K1.50), ATM balance enquiry at other banks (50t), and ATM mini statement (50t).
Various other fees are charged, all of which can be accessed on the NSP website, http://www.bsp.com.pg/About-Us/Rates--Fees/Fees--Charges/Personal-Fees--Charges.aspx.
Bank of South Pacific chief executive officer Ian Clyne says there are valid reasons for the fees it charges.
He justified BSP’s rates in reply to questions from The National following complaints from the public, particularly about the automatic telling machine (ATM) fees.
Clyne said the cost of banking services in PNG were very high, including ATMs, and most of these costs were borne by corporate clients as compared to retail clients.
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| Clyne...our charges are justified |
“The PNGBC (BSP’s predecessor) used to give a lot of services for free, but, of course, the PNGBC ran into serious financial trouble.
“So, as I said, if you look at the issue of service fees, the cost of an ATM withdrawal is 75t, the cost of a betelnut is K1.
“That ATM costs a lot of money; it’s a very expensive piece of equipment.
“We have a K3 million system that monitors the performance of the ATM.
“It’s a very expensive exercise to manage maintain an efficient working ATM network, therefore, there needs to be a fee.
“And the fee we charge in Papua New Guinea is about 20% of the fee charged for the same service in Australia or even in Africa
“I clearly understand the majority of the people because incomes are low, and they view some of the service fees as being high.
“Papua New Guineans, in most instances, enjoy very, very low fee structures.”
Apart from the 75t withdrawal fee, other ATM fees charged by BSP are for ATM cash withdrawal at other banks (K2.50), ATM cash withdrawal at other banks using Visa Debit Card (K15), ATM phone top up (75t), ATM balance enquiry (50t), ATM balance enquiry at other banks using VDC (K1.50), ATM balance enquiry at other banks (50t), and ATM mini statement (50t).
Various other fees are charged, all of which can be accessed on the NSP website, http://www.bsp.com.pg/About-Us/Rates--Fees/Fees--Charges/Personal-Fees--Charges.aspx.
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