Papua New Guinea’s newest commercial bank to enter the banking sector, the National Banking Corporation (NBC), is looking at entering the stock exchange. The NBC is planning to publicly list its stocks for public purchase as early as next year 2026, with Prime Minister James Marape calling on Papua New Guineans to prepare themselves in anticipation of this event. Prime Minister Marape, while launching the new commercial bank on Thursday (10.04.25) evening, urged Papua New Guinea’s superannuation funds, provincial governments, landowner companies, nationally owned businesses, and individual Papua New Guineans to look forward to the announcement and to buy shares in the bank. NBC is expecting an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Port Moresby Stock Exchange toward the end of 2026. Marape said he wants to see 80 percent of NBC owned by Papua New Guineans and Papua New Guinean companies with only 20 percent shareholding remaining with the State, through Kumul Consolidated Holdings. “So, to all Papua New Guineans, get ready to invest in your bank. Let’s make NBC become the biggest commercial bank in the country. Be ready because I will ring the bell very soon,” he said, adding that provincial governments and their subsidiary companies, especially, must take a keen investment interest in NBC and prepare for the IPO. Currently, NBC has 10 branches in the country and working to expand to all provinces of PNG, including Bougainville. NBC is the upscaling of the former People’s Micro Finance bank, which focused on providing microfinance banking services to small income earners and ordinary Papua New Guineans. It was established in 2013. NBC remains the subsidiary of the National Development Bank (NDB), one of the nine State enterprises of PNG. The expansion into the banking sector is part of the reforms currently undertaken by the Marape-Rosso Government to revitalize State-owned enterprises to become commercially-profitable and better service oriented for the people of Papua New Guinea.