Tangbunia Bank

{{short description|Bank in Vanuatu}}

{{Infobox company |

name = Tangbunia Bank|

logo = |

type = |

slogan = |

foundation = |

key_people = Chief Viraleo Boborenvanua, manager|

num_employees = |

industry = Banking

| products = Financial services

| market cap =

| revenue = |

net_income = |

homepage = |

}}

The Tangbunia Bank (widely misreported as Tari Bunia) is a bank run by the Turaga indigenous movement on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu. It is notable for dealing in items of customary wealth such as hand-woven mats, shells or pig tusks rather than currency such as the vatu. Accounts at the bank are reckoned in livatu, a unit equivalent to the value of one fully curved boar's tusk.{{Cite web|url=http://www.andrewgray.com/pacific/piggybank.htm|title=Piggy banking|website=www.andrewgray.com|access-date=2017-02-28}}

The Tangbunia Bank has fourteen branches throughout the island, with its headquarters at Lavatmanggemu. The bank's manager is Chief Viraleo Boborenvanua. It was set up in accordance with the national government's support for the indigenous customary economy, in a country where a majority of the population does not participate extensively in a monetary economy. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, the bank is similar to other banks in that it has "accounts, reserves, cheque books and tight security".[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6266274.stm "Paying in pig tusks in Vanuatu"], Andrew Harding, BBC, July 4, 2007

The bank is named after the giant baskets in which valuables were traditionally stored.J P Taylor, 2008, The Other Side: Ways of Being and Place in Vanuatu

Record-keeping at the Tangbunia bank is done using Avoiuli, a local writing system devised by Chief Viraleo.