The Face of the Modern BSP: Robin Fleming

If he is not sitting in board meetings, he is seen traveling around the country, officiating community events, or addressing the BSP Financial Group’s (BSP) internal or external problems across Papua New Guinea as well as the Pacific region.

The name and face of Robin Fleming have truly become synonymous with BSP after he took over as CEO from Ian Clyne.

Some say he is the man that truly modernized the green bank. Whether that statement is true or not doesn’t matter.

What matters the most is that BSP has truly transformed itself into a leading modern 21st-century bank not only in PNG but across the Pacific region, thanks to Robin Fleming, one of the greatest architectures of the modern BSP.

Mr. Fleming was appointed CEO of Bank of South Pacific Ltd, PNG and the Pacific’s largest bank, in April 2013.

Before his appointment as CEO, he had been Deputy CEO and Chief Risk Officer since 2009.

Prior to that, he held senior executive roles as Chief Risk Officer, General Manager Corporate & International, and Head of Risk Management with BSP. Prior to the merger of BSP and PNGBC, Mr. Fleming held senior management roles with PNGBC.

He has worked in PNG for over 35 years and holds an MBA and a Master of Management from Charles Sturt University.

Mr. Fleming, who took over as CEO in 2013, became part of BSP’s aggressive modernization plan.

The expansion continued in 2015 with the purchase of Westpac’s businesses in Cook Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu which were all successfully integrated into BSP Financial Group.

The establishment of BSP Finance in 2017 initially in Fiji and then shortly thereafter in PNG and Solomon Islands consolidated BSP as a broad financial services group, with business lines across banking, life insurance, asset finance, and capital advisory.

Today, BSP Group’s net profit after tax as announced for 2021 was K1.075 billion, an increase of more than K1 billion over the intervening 20 years, with BSP PNG’s profit alone being a K800 million increase over that of 2002 and a 66% market share in total loans.

At the time of amalgamation in April 2002, BSP employed 1,909 staff and at the end of 2021, BSP has over 3,090 staff in PNG and a total of 4,460 staff across the group, making it one of the largest employers in PNG outside agriculture plantation sectors according to the bank’s website.

Over the 20-year period, BSP has paid dividends to the State via the General Business Trust Kumul Consolidated Holdings of K1.046 billion with K800 million of those dividends having been paid in the last 10 years.

The total value of the State’s shares in BSP via KCH has increased by almost K1 billion since privatization and BSP has paid company tax in PNG of K2.5 billion in the last 10 years alone.

The man, the myth, and the legend has truly become the face of modern BSP.

Source : The Expreneur Magazine PNG 

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