Papua New Guinea: Moves to Protect Consumers from Unfair Financial Practices

The Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) with support from IFC, the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, has begun consultations on the fair and equitable treatment of consumers who take out loans and other financial services.

The move follows a review by BPNG and IFC into financial services available to people in Papua New Guinea (PNG) including financial consumer protection laws, financial service institutions and practices in PNG. The review found there were a range of issues with financial products including a lack of transparency of information on rates, fees, terms and conditions, with significant gaps in financial consumer protection as compared to international best practices and recommended the development of a financial consumer protection regulatory framework for PNG.