A planned new bank in America Samoa, the Community Bank, has received the backing of the owner of Tri Marine International, the parent company of Samoa Tuna Processors.
The bank's community and investor relations advisor, Lewis Wolman, says Renato Curto has signed a letter of intent for an investment of half a million US dollars.
More than 50 potential investors have signed letters of intent totalling 7.6 million US dollars in potential investment.
The letters of intent will be converted into monetary investments once the Community Bank gets federal approval to start operations.
The bank is being set up after the Bank of Hawaii announced it was pulling out of the territory.
