BSP clarifies deposit process at branch

“BSP Financial Group Limited (BSP) does not impose a K1,000 cash deposit acceptance limit at any of our branches,” said BSP Group CEO Robin Fleming when addressing recent social media comments, which were also raised in Parliament last week.

Mr Fleming stated that over the course of the first 2 weeks of August BSP processed 1,820 deposits a day across its Retail branches with an average deposit amount of K4.6m per day for deposits for our Kundu Account customers in the range of K1,000 per deposit to K20,000 per deposit. The average number of daily deposits by our Retail Kundu Account customers is similar to transaction activity levels in previous months this year and the same period last year which indicated that in the majority of cases cash deposit over K1,000 were continuing to be accepted by BSP. He stated that BSP also accepted almost 8,000 deposits a day for customers with deposit amounts less than K1,000.

Whilst direct feedback from branch managers and also internal data suggested that in the majority of cases cash deposits above K1,000 were being accepted, BSP will provide refresher training to all branch staff on the acceptance of cash deposits.

In respect of the informal sector, Mr Fleming further commented that, “cash deposits for customers known to be in the informal sectors be it coffee, cocoa, vanilla, fish, market produce, betelnut, bilums, garments and the like are accepted if it is consistent with the customers known source of income and they are depositing cash into their own personal account and there is no need for a customer in the informal sector to open a business account. Refresher training will also be provided to staff on this topic to ensure consistency. Mr Fleming stressed that, “BSP does not impose deposit restrictions on informal sector customers. In certain instances where the amount of deposit is unusually large, there may be additional questions asked to satisfy AML requirements.”

BSP operates across 84 branches and sub branches across PNG and in 60 locations, it is the only commercial bank in operation. BSP therefore has a significant component of its customer base participating in the informal sectors and as a consequence, BSP does understand the challenges faced by informal sector customers and continues to support this sector through the provision of banking services supported by our extensive network of branches and sub branches.

BSP advises that if customers do encounter any issues in relation to the deposits, they can speak to the Branch Manager concerned, email customerfeedback@bsp.com.pg or call BSP Call Centre 70301212, 3201212 and the complaint will be investigated with a response provided to the customer.