Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The American Samoa Government has no intention of asking ANZ to remain in the territory, says Acting Governor Talauega Eleasalo Ale.

 “ANZ has made a business decision to leave American Samoa — that decision has been made years ago and in fact ANZ has stopped making loans or investing in American Samoa for a very long time,” he said during a press conference with the media recently.

“And the American Samoa Government at this point has no plans to ask them to stay.”

In March, ANZ announced that it would strengthen its focus on building a world-class digital bank in its core Pacific markets of Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Kiribati, as well as Timor-Leste, following a decision to exit US community banking in American Samoa and Guam.

ANZ’s Regional Executive Pacific, Tessa Price, said that in their core Pacific markets, where they have been for more than 141 years, ANZ plays an important role in connecting customers to the growing trade and investment opportunities in the region, as well as providing industry insight and links into our home markets of Australia and New Zealand.

“In American Samoa and Guam, ANZ’s competitive position is not as compelling. US community banking is not in line with ANZ’s key strengths, which is impacting our ability to meet the needs of customers in American Samoa and Guam.”

ANZ will wind down its business in American Samoa over the next 6 months, while in discussions with other parties about the future ownership options for its business in Guam.

Talauega told the media it’s ANZ’s decision to leave and they've made that decision. 

“And like I said they are private business making a decision on what is good for their shareholders.”

Adding that the American Samoa Government has to do what is good for its people.

“And so we will explore options to ensure that the banking needs of our people are met and those who already have accounts with ANZ can be transferred to their bank of preference whether it's TBAS or another bank in the US.”

 Regarding the Community Bank of American Samoa’s interest, the Acting Governor said, “There has been no real interest in buying TBAS and while there are indications by the Community Bank to explore, but there hasn’t been any real offers of purchase.”

As stated earlier they will continue to work with the Community Bank folks who are on island and off island to make sure that they explore the viability of the interests from their group to acquire the bank or pieces of the bank.

 “But like I said the Governor is very concerned about the investments that the people of American Samoa have already put into this institution and we're also concerned about what happened to the Amerika Samoa Bank that was purchased by a foreign bank and now they're leaving us.

These are all difficult issues that need to be considered,” said Talauega.

 As reported earlier, the Community Bank of American Samoa issued a statement expressing a strong desire to purchase the Territorial Bank of American Samoa citing that with the departure of ANZ, for the first time in fifty years, American Samoa will have no FDIC insured bank.

The CBAS was initially formed more than ten years ago, in efforts to purchase Bank of Hawaii’s operation in the territory, however the bank decided to close instead of selling.

Talauega confirmed the CBAS interest has been in place for quite some time, however the Government has a concern about preserving and observing the interests of the Government that went into creating the bank.

 “And also the interest securing FDIC coverage is a process that is long and it's also very expensive; so securing the first bond to get into the bank as it is — it is a very expensive proposition.

“And at this moment it is not clear that the Community Bank or any other locals’ interests have that funding to secure that,” said Talauega.