KHJ News received the following statement late this afternoon from the President of the Development Bank of American Samoa in response to our story this morning about the freezing of interest payments on DBAS loans for a select group which includes DBAS Board members and bank employees and their relatives.
The statement says the interest freeze policy was a special program in effect from January 2010 until December 2010.
The policy and program expired in December 2010 and is no longer in effect.
Borrowers who were on the program as of December 2010 are still subject to the terms and conditions of the program.
The statement goes on: “In reference to social media. DBAS strongly condemns the theft of customer information and has the highest concern for customer confidentiality.
“DBAS is investigating the recent disclosure of customer information and will be taking appropriate actions.”
KHJ News points out that the first time we were made aware of the DBAS interest free loans was through posts on social media.
As we reported this morning officials closely associated with DBAS say that freezing the interest on loans has been continued from the previous DBAS board and has escalated under the current board.
The sources also said top bank officials had advised against this practice and suggested refinancing instead but the bank board did not heed the advice.
