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The first financial consumer bill in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Financial Consumer Protection Bill, is already being developed by the Bank of PNG (BPNG). One of its underlying principles is to protect consumers from unfair treatments by financial institutions in the country. Read More: https://tvwan.com.pg/news/10645 /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Credit: TVWAN news, 01.08.2026 The first financial consumer bill in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Financial Consumer Protection Bill, is already being developed by the Bank of PNG (BPNG). One of its underlying principles is to protect consumers from unfair treatments by financial institutions in the country. Currently, there is no financial consumer law in Papua New Guinea, which is why consumer grievances related to financial services and products go unattended. All the legislation by BPNG focuses mostly on financial institutions, rather than consumers. It (the bill) sets out guidelines for BPNG to closely monitor financial institutions while ensuring consumer grievances are raised and heard. BPNG Assistant Governor, Financial System Regulations & Supervision Group, Sabina Deklin outlined this development during the PNG Consumer, Competition and Economic Regulation Forum hosted by the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission earlier this week. She said the bill, once passed, is expected to promote transparency in financial institutions while restoring consumer confidence in financial products and services offered. “The bill is completed, but it is somewhere to go through the next process, and I think that is where we are at the moment on that,” said Deklin. “This bill here focuses on the consumers.” “As the regulator, if the bill is enacted, it will provide some clear mandates as to how the Bank (BPNG) will deal with (those) institutions.” “It will (also) provide a lot of guidance depending on the powers as to how it will deal with complaints, but before it becomes a complaint, how and what they (financial institutions) need to have in place,” she added. The Financial Consumer Protection Bill is structured under these principles of disclosure and transparency; data protection; responsible lending; product suitability; responsible lending; and consumer recourse. For consumers to raise complaints they will use the recourse pathway. “So if a consumer is still unhappy about the way the institution has addressed his or her complaint, then there should be a pathway for that person to actually reach out to. So that is the recourse pathway,” said Deklin. “Note that the first point of contact for any complaint is not the central bank, it is supposed to be the institution. “So the complainant or the customer, when the consumer has a complaint, he needs to go to a financial institution, and (the) financial institutions is required to have within their frameworks a consumer complaint mechanism as to how they should address,” Deklin said noting that the last point of contact is the Central bank. Follow for more ... https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb8PyZs9cDDe4jJy2E1Y