CBSI condemns vandalism of BSP Point Cruz Branch

(Honiara 28.12.2021) – The Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) is appalled by the recent vandalism act towards Bank South Pacific Central Branch in Point Cruz, Honiara and is once again calling on Honiara residents to respect public property.

CBSI Deputy Governor, Mr. Raynold Moveni re-emphasized this call following reports from BSP Management on Tuesday 28^th December 2021.

“We have just learnt about this recent stoning event towards BSP’s Central Branch in Honiara, and quite frankly this is totally unacceptable behaviour”, Moveni expressed.

“We fully condemn this type of criminal activity of vandalizing public or private property and assets. This action has disrupted the retail and commercial banking activities this morning, caused inconvenience to the general banking public and, if not addressed now, has potential to erode the confidence of licensed financial institutions to establish financial access points and other critical banking infrastructures in Honiara and provincial centres”, Moveni added.

“CBSI as the regulator and supervisor of licensed financial institutions in our country fully condemns such actions and wish to remind the public to must respect all critical banking and payments infrastructures”.

This event comes after BSP suffered an initial multi-million damage over their Ranadi branch which was razed by fire and looted during the November civil unrest.

The call by Deputy Governor is the second one for CBSI in just three weeks. The first statement came from Governor himself and was made earlier this month with same emphasis on avoiding any forms of disruptions to the financial system. 

These properties and assets are key infrastructures, are relatively expensive to replace, and are critical to the operations and functioning of the national economy.

CBSI encourages anyone with any lead information on the perpetrators to report it immediately to the police and other authorities concerned.

Ends//