Papua New Guinea’s financial institutions are playing a leadership role in digitalising its economy. The country’s bankers talk to Business Advantage PNG about their major investments in new technology, and how this is driving business growth.

CreditBank PNG’s Danny Robinson sees digital onboarding as a competitive advantage. Credit: BAI

“With an increasing number of PNG’s banks and financial institutions adopting new platforms … our economy is already undergoing a significant digital transformation,” observed the Bank of Papua New Guinea’s Governor, Elizabeth Genia, in January 2025.

She was speaking at the launch of a Japanese-sponsored study into a central bank digital currency for PNG.

“The big agenda item for us in the next two years is investment in our own infrastructure.” – Brett Hooker, outgoing Managing Director, Westpac PNG

While a blockchain-enabled currency is just a concept at this stage, the country’s financial institutions are nevertheless at the vanguard of moves to digitalise PNG’s economy.

“You’ve got the new players who are coming in who are focusing on digital channels, and then you’ve got the traditional players who obviously don’t want to miss out on the opportunities,” observes Herbert Maguma, Managing Partner at consultants Deloitte PNG.

“The culmination of that is significant investment in the financial services sector.”

Multi-year journey

The country’s largest bank, BSP Financial Group, is already committed to a K350 million modernisation program up to 2026.

PNG’s second-largest bank, Kina Bank, is also investing heavily.

“We’ve had upgrades to our core banking system, mobile offering and corporate online banking over the course of the year,” notes Greg Pawson, who was succeeded as CEO by Ivan Vidovich in early 2025, after seven years at the helm.

“Our digital revenues are growing by about 35 per cent year-on-year.”

Pawson says Kina Bank will launch a “brand spanking new” corporate online platform in 2025.

Initiatives such as its partnership with online accounting software powerhouse Xero and e-commerce work as part of PNG’s e-government project are also driving digital growth.

Alignment

Another reason PNG’s banks are going digital is to better align with neighbouring markets, according to Brett Hooker, who completed his term as Managing Director at Westpac PNG at the start of 2025. The Australia-headquartered bank recently recommitted itself to the PNG market.

“The big agenda item for us for the next two years is investment in our own infrastructure, all with a view to expanding our digital reach – particularly to reach out to regional locations,” he says.

All three new banks that have entering the PNG market in the past year – CreditBank PNG, TISA Bank and National Banking Corporation – have also spent heavily on new core banking systems – and that’s just the start.

“We’ve jumped ahead of the market with digital onboarding,” says CreditBank’s CEO Danny Robinson.

“People scan their passport and driver’s licence and it actually preloads the application information … We also do the facial recognition through the app.”

“We think there’s opportunity to provide a host of other products, which are pretty common around the world in terms of banking services, but are not available in PNG.”

A fourth player, finance company Moni Plus, is also investing, to position itself for a banking licence some time in the future.

“It’s about becoming a more agile organisation. You have to provide your customers with better services,” explains Moni Plus’ Managing Director, Aho Baliki.

“Instead of people coming into our branches, they should be able to check their balances on their phones.”

The embrace of technology is also being seen in PNG’s superannuation sector.

“We have created something we call e-Branch, which has pretty much all of Nasfund’s offerings on a digital platform,” says the fund’s CEO, Rajeev Sharma. “We are also using artificial intelligence to enhance our back office efficiencies.”

Infrastructure dependency

Brett Hooker notes, however, that some of the financial sector’s digital rollout is dependent on the country’s power and telecommunications networks continuing to improve as well.

Rajeev Sharma agrees, observing that many companies are still maintaining both manual and digital systems in parallel, for redundancy reasons.

“The cost of internet is still very high in this country – that needs to come down. Internet speeds need to be better too,” he says.

While PNG’s telcos are indeed investing heavily in their networks, their contribution to financial inclusion might also be more direct.

Digicel PNG already has its CellMoni mobile wallet, while Vodafone PNG’s parent in Fiji offers a proven mobile money transfer service, M-PAiSA, which could also have potential in PNG.

This article was first published in the annual Business Advantage Papua New Guinea 2025 Edition.