The rise came despite a 3 percent drop in assets, to $21.7 billion, and a 7.6 percent decline in loans, to $13.8 billion, the company said.But Hawaii banks and thrifts were nonetheless able to report some encouraging numbers in 1995 to offset some less than stellar ones, according to new figures from a national tracking service.
As an industry, Hawaii banks posted an 11 percent increase in income to $247 million, data compiled by Sheshunoff Information Services Inc. shows.
The rise came despite a 3 percent drop in assets, to $21.7 billion, and a 7.6 percent decline in loans, to $13.8 billion, the company said.
Local savings and loans associations similarly produced mixed results.
Assets jumped 8.5 percent, to $6.3 billion. But income fell nearly 13 percent, to $47.6 million, while loan volume dropped 2.6 percent, to $4 billion.
Even more disturbing, the S&Ls' nonperforming loans - those at least 90 days past due - soared 34.4 percent to $53.6 million. Such loans are a good indicator of the quality of an institution's loan portfolio.
For Hawaii banks, nonperforming loans declined 7.5 percent, to $205.6 million. That
represented 1.5 percent of the banking industry's overall loan volume - the eighth highest percentage among the 50 states, Sheshunoff said.
Wayne Minami, chairman of Hawaii League of Savings Institutions, attributed the S&L results primarily to the state's sluggish economy and the narrowing spread between what institutions charge for loans and pay on deposits.
Minami, also president of American Savings Bank, doesn't forsee much improvement for 1996.
"I think we're looking at a similar year," he said. "The economy is improving but not by a lot."
David Houle, chief financial officer for Bank of Hawaii, the state's largest, is expecting a better year for local banks, boosted by an anticipated increase in economic growth in the islands.
"That better economic environment would tend to help improve customers' ability to service debt, which tends to improve asset quality and earnings of Hawaii financial institutions," Houle said.
Evidence of that already has surfaced, with the state's two largest banks reporting higher first-quarter earnings, he said.