First Hawaiian earnings jump 26.5 percent
Assets, deposits and loans all increased in the first quarter
First Hawaiian Bank, the state's largest bank in terms of assets, posted a 26.5 percent jump in first-quarter earnings as assets, loans and deposits all increased from the previous year.
Net income rose to $48.7 million from $38.5 million a year earlier.
Assets grew 8.8 percent to $11.7 billion from $10.8 billion, loans and leases increased 7.5 percent to $5.9 billion from $5.4 billion and deposits rose 6.4 percent to $8.6 billion from $8.1 billion.
Nonperforming assets, as a percentage of total assets, were 0.02 percent compared with 0.08 percent a year earlier.
"We are pleased with the bank's first-quarter performance," said Don Horner, president and chief executive of First Hawaiian.
Net interest income, which reflects the difference between what the bank pays depositors and what it brings in from loans, rose to $34.5 million from $31.2 million. The net interest margin was 4.52 percent compared with 4.2 percent a year earlier.
Noninterest income, which includes revenue from service charges and fees, was $36.4 million compared with $35.9 million.
First Hawaiian, which has 57 branches in Hawaii, three on Guam and two on Saipan, is a subsidiary of Honolulu-based BancWest Corp. and a sister bank of San Francisco-based Bank of the West.
In all of 2005, First Hawaiian's earnings rose 28.1 percent to $47.1 million.
BancWest, owned by French banking giant BNP Paribas SA, announced earlier this year that it would stop issuing quarterly earnings releases but that First Hawaiian and Bank of the West would issue individual earnings results.
BancWest had total assets of $65.7 billion at the end of the first quarter, up from $51.4 billion from the year-earlier period.