BSP Leads Lending In 5 Pacific Countries

Bank of the South Pacific (BSP) was the leading lending facility in five Pacific Island countries last year.

The announcement  was made through the Papua New Guinea Stock Exchange yesterday.

In its fourth quarterly investor presentation, the bank it held 26 per cent of the Fiji loan market share.

Fiji ranked fourth on the loans market share, preceded by PNG at 63 per cent, Solomon Islands at 55 per cent, Tonga at 40 per cent and, Samoa at 32 per cent.

BSP’s loan market share in Vanuatu is 17 per cent. In loans portfolio composition, Fiji held 22 per cent,  second only to PNG at 64.3 per cent.

BSP has the largest network with 119 branches and sub branches.

According the market announcement, BSP had  2.5 million customers and, churned $12million a month in digital transactions.

According to the market announcement, BSP loan portfolio grew by 5.3 per cent, while its assets rose by 6.1 per cent.

“BSP was the first PNG bank to pioneer multichannel experiences, with Automated Teller Machines, E Electronic funds transfer at point of sale  (EFTPOS) and debit cards in 1995.

Good growth

Chairman of the board of directors Sir Kostas Constantinou said across the Pacific, BSP Bank Samoa achieved very good growth as did BSP Finance Cambodia.

“The bank’s profit growth was positive with after tax profits increasing 7.4 per cent.

“Total assets of the bank at the end of 2019 are at K21.891 billion (FJ$14.248billion). “Loans and advances to customers has a net growth of K587.3 million (FJ$382.26 million) to K11.820 billion ($7.69 billion) which has been mainly in PNG and Fiji and Samoa.”

Sir Kostas said most economies in which BSP operated maintained reasonable levels of growth.

“Fiji’s economy contracted to around 1.0 per cent.

“Whilst the region continues to be more susceptible to extreme weather events there was no cyclone or other weather event in 2019 of national significance,” Sir Kostas said.

Also in early 2020, BSP finalised an agreement with partners RMA Group to enter into a joint venture with them in an asset finance business in Laos, further extending BSP’s reach in the Mekong delta.

Sir Kostas said the outlook for 2020 across the group was for slower growth giving regard to economic conditions that remain challenged in most countries.

Economic growth in PNG will be slower than previous years and will be dependent upon successful negotiation of a headline extractive industry project, he said.

“Events of early 2020 related to the Coronavirus in China will have an impact on the global economy and economies that are commodity based such as PNG.”

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