A “dead island” operation was declared and many businesses kept their curtains down Thursday on the island of Wallis, in the Pacific Ocean, a conflict linked to access to bank accounts which also affects the island of Futuna .
According to the prefecture, around a hundred people demonstrated Thursday in Wallis at the call of the construction federation, the origin of the discontent began with the closure of the account of a contractor from this overseas community.
Conflicts with the only bank in the archipelago, the Bank of Wallis and Futuna (BWF), a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, are recurrent, due to account closures in application of regulations on the fight against money laundering. ‘money.
There are abusive account closures, including for individuals. We want all accounts to be reopened, the president of the Construction Federation, Kamaliele Valefakaaga, told AFP.
Since November 30, the federation’s entrepreneurs have blocked the headquarters of the BWF Wallis as well as the territorial assembly, prefect Blaise Gourtay told AFP.
They were joined in the movement by the Association of Wallis Withdrawals and the Futuna Employers’ Federation, which is also blocking the BWF branch, according to its president Samino Tufele, interviewed by Wallis and Futuna 1st.
A first negotiation meeting took place on Wednesday evening, in the presence of Mr. Gourtay and the president of the territorial assembly, Munipoese Muliakaaka.
The meeting made it possible to find a conciliation on the case of the entrepreneur whose account had been closed by the bank, which had triggered the movement, without however making it possible to lift the blockage.
A new meeting was planned for Thursday, according to the prefect.
In 2022, a social movement was triggered due to already numerous account closures. In 2019, another conflict concerned the restrictions on cash withdrawals imposed by the BWF.