Financial Services

Papua New Guinea’s financial services industry is developing, with commercial banks forming the largest part of the sector.

Banking

In PNG, the banking sector is regulated by the Bank of PNG, the country's Central Bank. Four commercial banks are operating in the country dominated by locally-owned Bank of South Pacific. Other players include Australian-owned ANZ and Westpac, and locally-owned Kina Bank. While retail banking has considerably propagated its presence in PNG over the past years, there is still a great deal of opportunity for this sector to grow. 80% of the country is considered unbanked, hurdled by geographical and security concerns. Efforts on financial inclusion and financial literacy are advocated to encourage more people to be part of the financial grid. Mobile banking is gaining traction in the market, making banking services accessible even to remote areas.

Aside from commercial banks, Papua New Guinea also has savings and loan societies and licensed financial institutions including microfinance companies, money remitters, money changers, and foreign exchange dealers.

Insurance

The PNG insurance market comprises 13 insurance companies as of 2016. General insurers are predominantly subsidiaries or branches of foreign-owned insurance companies such as QBE, AIG and Tower. Most business lines written are property, motor vehicle, marine, employer liability, medical, and brokerage. Composite insurers are mainly locally owned and write life business. Life insurance industry is underdeveloped with only 2 to 5% of the nation, business and people combined, having some form of coverage.

Capital Markets

The Papua New Guinea Capital Markets is relatively underdeveloped. The Port Moresby Stock Exchange (POMSoX) was only incorporated in 1998 and began trading in 1999. As of September 2015, there are only 19 listed companies of which 16 are equity-listed and 1 debt-listed. A number of these entitites are dual-listed, with their Primary Exchange on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Liquidity and trading activity are some of the issues currently faced by POMSoX.

How can PwC help?

Our teams work across all segments of financial services – commercial banks, non-bank lenders, insurers, superannuation funds, asset managers, infrastructure, private equity investors, property groups, advisers and regulators. We're at the forefront of thought leadership, analysing developments, and anticipating industry trends. We are passionate about our work in the financial services sector, seeing it as an opportunity to contribute both to our clients' success and to the integrity of Papua New Guinea's financial system.

We focus on adding value for the financial services industry through insights gained from our deep knowledge of local and international markets, technical competencies, our approach to collaboration and long term relationships, and our willingness to challenge the status quo in our approaches.

Financial Services
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