By Sylvester Gawi – EM TV, Lae
BSP customers in Lae city are frustrated over the long queues at the commercial bank, with hundreds of people having to line up along the sixth and seventh streets at Lae’ s top town, to do their banking.
However, Bank South Pacific, in response, has called on its customers to “bank smarter” to avoid the queues.
It’s an all too common sight, every morning, where the bank is filled with people and the queue extends for another 100 metres along the 6th street. Customers have expressed their frustrations over the “slow services” at the bank’s counters and the limited cash available at automatic teller machines.
The lines pose a great risk for motorists and even block the movement of people around town.
Over the last 5 years, the economic boom in Morobe and Lae city itself has seen an increase in the accessing of banking services. In a statement provided to EM TV, BSP has encouraged its customers to use “cheaper and more convenient options”.
Customers have been urged to use mobile and internet banking, especially with third party funds transfer; BSP also confirmed that most of the people that walked the queues are making third party deposits and are not BSP customers.
However, these customers are comprised of people from rural areas who continue to travel into Lae to do their banking.
BSP expects this increased activity to continue until the end of this week, by which most of the rural-based customers will have returned to their home districts.
Apart from the mobile and internet banking, and ATM’s, BSP has, over the recent months, established a number of agents around Lae city.
These agents can accept deposits and pay withdrawals provide customers with the opportunity to complete their simple transactions at a closer location.
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