First Hawaiian
slashes 70 positions

Affected workers will get
severance if they can't find
another job in the bank

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

First Hawaiian Bank has notified 70 of its branch workers that their jobs are being eliminated, in what a bank spokesman today called a continuation of a two-year cost-cutting program.

Spokesman Gerry Keir said the bank cut about 200 positions last year and another 200 or so this year. The latest 70 cuts are on top of that. The bank has about 3,000 employees. Those whose jobs are being cut now have 90 days to find other positions within the bank, jobs that open through attrition such as retirement or people leaving for other reasons, Keir said. Those who can't find other positions will get severance packages geared to how long they have been on the payroll.

Keir said about nine out of 10 employees whose jobs were cut since the trimming started early last year have been able to stay with the bank in other jobs.

The latest round of job cuts is not related to the merger, scheduled for this weekend, of the bank's parent First Hawaiian Inc. and California-based BancWest Corp., he said.

In its financial report for the third quarter, issued Oct. 15, First Hawaiian said it had eliminated 410 positions. "We have avoided layoffs wherever possible, making nearly 90 percent of these trims through attrition," said Walter A. Dods Jr., chairman and chief executive officer.

He said the payroll reductions were the main reason that the company's profit for the first nine months of this year was 2 percent higher than the net for the 1997 nine months.

First Hawaiian Inc. closed 14 branches at its Pioneer Federal Savings Bank subsidiary when it merged the savings and loan business into First Hawaiian Bank in April 1997. Competitor Pacific Century Financial Corp., parent of Bank of Hawaii, has also been cutting jobs in a program announced early this year to eliminate 550 positions.

Both banks say they have to cut costs because of the downturn in the Hawaii economy.