[ BANKING ON GROWTH ]
First Hawaiian Bank has undergone quite a metamorphosis since the day 144 years ago when two local businessmen opened the state's oldest financial institution in a basement near Honolulu's waterfront. First Hawaiian goes
global but stays localThe state's oldest financial institution
144 years of growth
grew as it underwent changes of identityBy Dave Segal
dsegal@starbulletin.comToday, the two businessmen, Charles Bishop and William Aldrich, might not recognize their creation.
Bank of Bishop & Co., as it was known in 1858, generated its early business by making loans to the Kingdom of Hawaii's sugar and whaling industries, as well as to Big 5 companies Amfac, Alexander & Baldwin, Castle & Cooke, C. Brewer and Theo H. Davies.
Last year, the bank's holding company, BancWest Corp., became a wholly owned subsidiary of BNP Paribas SA, the largest publicly traded bank in France and the fifth largest in the world.
In between, the bank enjoyed rapid growth by expanding east to the mainland. It went through several identity changes before being renamed First Hawaiian Bank in 1969. Then, in 1996, the bank acquired 31 branches in Oregon, Washington and Idaho from U.S. Bancorp and formed a new subsidiary, Pacific One Bank. First Hawaiian merged in 1998 with San Francisco-based Bank of the West in a $1 billion stock deal to form BancWest Corp., and after that gradually made its imprint in Nevada and New Mexico.
Last year, the second-oldest bank west of the Rockies entered a new chapter when BNP Paribas acquired the remaining 55 percent it did not already own for $2.4 billion. Then, in March of this year, BancWest became the 25th-largest U.S. bank holding company by expanding into Southern California with the acquisition of United California Bank.
COURTESY OF FIRST HAWAIIAN BANK / 1878
The Bank of Bishop & Co., predecessor of First Hawaiian Bank, moved into its first real home in 1878, a two-story building at the corner of Merchant and Kaahumanu streets, above.
But the bank, which began marketing itself in 1969 as "the bank that says yes," still has not lost its local identity.
"From my perspective the bank is still a community bank," said 77-year-old Jimmy Yee, a loan review officer who has been with the bank for 61 years. "We were at one time the mom-and-pop store of banks for Hawaii. We primarily deal with people who reside in Hawaii. We make loans to them and take deposits from them.
"Of course, the bank has changed quite a bit. We've broadened from just taking deposits and making loans to many other areas such as investments, insurance and the like. Not only is the bank still doing it locally, it's doing it worldwide," Yee said.
Yee, who started at First Hawaiian in 1941 when it was called Bishop National Bank, recalls that the World War II years were an incredibly hectic time for the bank.
STAR-BULLETIN / MAY 1998
Some 120 years later, the First Hawaiian building on King and Bishop streets towered over downtown.
"We were extremely busy during the war years because of defense personnel and the Pearl Harbor crew coming in," Yee said. "We used to close the bank at 2 or 3, and then after a couple of hours of balancing (the books), we would reopen again to take care of the customers."
BancWest Chairman and Chief Executive Walter Dods, who worked his way up through the ranks, was elevated from president to the top job in 1989 when Chairman and Chief Executive John Bellinger died. After overseeing all the mainland expansion and the acquisition by BNP Paribas, Dods announced in June that he was considering a run for governor. Upon consulting with his family, however, he decided to stay put at the bank.
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144 years of growth
>> 1858: Founded as Bank of Bishop & Co. Ltd.>> 1910: Opens first neighbor-island branch in Hilo on the Big Island
>> 1969: Changes name to First Hawaiian Bank
>> 1975: Acquires 11-branch Hawaii Thrift & Loan
>> 1989: Chairman and CEO John Bellinger dies; President Walter Dods succeeds him
>> 1991: Acquires 20-branch First Interstate Bank of Hawaii
>> 1992: Acquires two-branch East West Bank
>> 1993: Acquires 19-branch, century-old Pioneer Federal Savings Bank
>> 1996: Acquires 31 branches from U.S. Bancorp in Oregon, Washington and Idaho and forms Pacific One Bank subsidiary
>> 1996: Dedication of First Hawaiian Center, a $175 million headquarters building in downtown Honolulu that is the state's tallest building at 428 feet, 11 1/2 inches.
>> 1998: Merges with Bank of the West to create BancWest Corp. in a deal valued at nearly $1 billion
>> 1999: Acquires 20-branch SierraWest Bancorp to expand into Nevada for the first time
>> 2001: Expands into New Mexico and Nevada by acquiring 30 former First Security locations
>> 2001: Acquires Union Bank of California's branch network in Guam and Saipan
>> 2001: Becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of France's largest publicly traded bank, BNP Paribas, which acquires the remaining 55 percent of BancWest that it did not already own for $2.4 billion
>> 2002: Becomes the 25th-largest U.S. bank holding company by expanding into Southern California with the acquisition of United California Bank
