Westpac into Tuvalu
pp. 32-33 · Read in the full issue
Tuvalu
Westpac Banking Corporation has become a shareholder in the National Bank of Tuvalu and will provide the bank’s management and other support services through their regional office in Suva.
The Tuvalu bank was pre viously managed by Barclays International, Pic, of London, but they recently withdrew from the Pacific, selling their quite extensive operation in Fiji to
Anz.
Details of the agreement be tween Westpac and the Tuvalu government were announced
in Funafuti by the minister of finance, Mr Henry Naisali, and Westpac’s chief manager for Fiji and the Pacific Islands, Mr Jim Huey.
Mr Naisali said the govern ment welcomed Westpac which is now a considerable in ternational bank, and the eleventh largest bank in the United States, as well as the largest bank in Australia. West pac has an extensive network in the Pacific region and has been responsible for handling the financing of some of the major projects and industries in the islands.
Mr Huey said Westpac’s aim was to see that the government
and people ot luvalu received the best of banking services appropriate to the needs of Tuvalu. ”We will also pay particular attention to the train ing and development of local staff.”
Mr Ken Love, formerly of Westpac’s head office in Syd ney, has been appointed gen eral manager of the Tuvalu bank.
Westpac’s association with the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, now known as Kiribati and Tuvalu, goes back to 1970 when, as the Bank of New South Wales, it opened the branch it still maintains in Tarawa.