A member of the Board of Directors of the Territorial Bank of American Samoa says in the future, TBAS would be in the market to provide financing for business development.
Keniseli Lafaele, who has been nominated for a second term as Director of Commerce, gave a presentation on the government’s plans to boost economic development at the Chamber of Commerce AGM, Wednesday.
Since opening October 4 at the old premises of Bank of Hawaii on the ground floor of the Centennial Building , TBAS has been signing up customers.
And during Christmas it offered unsecured loans of up to $2500.
The government owned bank is still waiting for a routing number, something that Lafaele acknowledged during his presentation.
KHJ News understands that the Federal Reserve wants to be certaint that there’ll be no government interference in the bank.
The territory’s economic development boss told the chamber that in the future TBAS would be a source for business financing in the future.
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Other financing sources mentioned in the ASG presentation were the Development Bank of American Samoa, the State Small Business Credit Initiative which is now on line with attorney Marshall Ashley as the manager of the American Samoa Venture Fund, the EB-5 program, a US incentive program which offers immigration benefits for wealthy foreign investors, and public private partnerships and federal grant programs.
At the meeting, the Governor’s Executive Assistant Iulogologoo Joseph Pereira apologized for the recent memo from the Chief of Customs announcing a change in the computation of the excise tax for commercial imports.
The memo said that from February 1st the excise tax would include insurance and other costs.
After angry reaction from local businesses , Treasurer Uelgitione Tonumaipe’a sent out another memo saying that the planned change had been postponed.
A chamber member asked why there’s no discussion about planned changes before they are implemented to save embarrassing situations such as the one involving the customs chief.
