The Central Bank of Papua New Guinea is calling on the national government to bring in more banks, if it wants to see a drop in fees charged by commercial banks.
Bank's Governor Loi Bakani said PNG currently has four commercial banks and there is not enough competition, that is why each of the existing banks are charging their own fees to make money.
Bakani said commercial banks are also businesses, and they make money through collection of fees charged on customers. He says the Bank cannot stop them.
Mr Bakani provided this explanation after the issue on excessive fees charged on customers was raised in Parliament yesterday.
Loi Bakani said although commercial banks are regulated by BPNG
under the Central Bank Act 2000, it can not do much as it will suppress their operations in the country.
Bakani said commercial banks are also business and they make money through collection of fees charged on customers and if Central Banks control them too much, some commercial banks might close their operations in some centers as they will not have enough money to operate, and this will affects the people.
The Central Bank Governor however said, if there is more commercial banks than B-PNG can exercise its powers to fully regulate but currently its only four serving millions of people.
The four commercial banks includes, BSP. West Pac, ANZ and Maybank.