Access to Finance
| June 2018 |
Access to Finance improved over the year to June 2018
Access to Financial Services
Over the year ended June 2018, the total access points in the banking system rose by 11% mainly due to an increase in the number of agents and EFTPOS terminals (refer to Table 1 below).
Table 1: Summary of the Type of Access Points in Tonga by Banks
In terms of the location of the access points, the Tongatapu 2, Tongatapu 8 and Vava’u 15 constituencies contributed the most to the rise in the number of agents and EFTPOS access points (refer to Table 2 below). BSP has increased their agents and EFTPOS in Tongatapu, the outer islands and the remote areas, particularly in Ha’apai and ‘Eua. This supported the financial consumer’s accessibility to financial services in these outer islands and remote areas.
Table 2: Summary of the Type of Access Points in Tonga by Constituency
June 18
| Constituency | June 18 | ||||
| Total Access Points | No. of Branches | No. of Agents | No. of EFTPOS | No. ATMs | |
| Tongatapu 1 | 42 | 0 | 1 | 39 | 2 |
| Tongatapu 2 | 305 | 5 | 2 | 285 | 13 |
| Tongatapu 3 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 1 |
| Tongatapu 4 | 29 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 3 |
| Tongatapu 5 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 0 |
| Tongatapu 6 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| Tongatapu 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Tongatapu 8 | 32 | 0 | 4 | 27 | 1 |
| Tongatapu 9 | 29 | 2 | 5 | 21 | 1 |
| Tongatapu 10 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 'Eua 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Ha'apai 12 | 18 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 1 |
| Ha'apai 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vava'u 14 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Vava'u 15 | 71 | 4 | 2 | 62 | 3 |
| Vava'u 16 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Ongo Niua 17 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 599 | 18 | 22 | 533 | 26 |
Source: Banks
Usage of Financial Services
The total number of usage of financial services rose by 5% over the year ended to June 2018 owing to an increase in the number of deposit accounts outweighing a decline in the loan accounts. The increase in the number of deposit accounts is mainly due to commercial banks efforts to encourage the uptake of their digital services platforms while the decline in the number of loan accounts reflected the number of loan accounts under the Government Development Loan that is now reported separately from the banks loan portfolios.
Conclusion
Access to financial services improved over the year ended June 2018, with an increase in the number of access points as well as the number of deposit accounts. This increase in access to financial services encourages the utilization of the excess liquidity in the banking system to increase lending and support domestic economic growth.
Enquiries
Financial Access Department
National Reserve Bank of Tonga
NUKU'ALOFA
Telephone: (676) 24057
Fax: (676) 24201
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Access to Finance Report Releases
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Access To Finance - June 2018 Released on 30 July 2019 | 120 KB |
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Access To Finance - June 2017 Released on 15 August 2018 | 140 KB |
