Wales/Westpac Ex-PNG/Pacific Staff Reunion

The National Bank of Tuvalu (NBT) commenced operations in Tuvalu (ex-Ellice Islands) in 1981 as a joint venture with Barclays which took a 25% stake and a management contract (Stone 1990). (Around 1976 as separation of the Ellice Islands from the Gilbert Islands loomed, Westpac established an agency agreement with the Cooperative operating there; NBT then took over the agency.) When Barclays’ contract expired in 1985 Barclays sold its shares back to the government. Westpac replaced Barclays and took a 40% stake as well as a 10-year management contract. In 1995,

Westpac sold its shares to the government, which now owns 100% of NBT. In 1999 the government merged NBT and the Development Bank of Tuvalu to establish a single, multipurpose bank.

During 1980, Jim Huey (The Bank of NSW Chief Manager for Fiji and The Pacific) is sent to take charge of the Pacific Island Division. On his return from surveying the business in Kiribati, his plane stops over in Tuvalu. Huey takes the opportunity to pop into the local bank, which happens to be next door to the airport. He discovers the bank is 20% owned by Barclays Bank with the remainder in the hands of the local government.

Huey tells the manager; 'If Barclays ever gets tired of sending someone like you all the way out from London to run this tin pot bank here, let us know. We could be interested in taking you out'. Sounds like the manager may have looked a little out of place in his environment. Perhaps he was wearing a woollen suit.

Tuvalu