First Hawaiian Bank has record year

The BancWest subsidiary reaches $12 billion in assets for the first time

First Hawaiian Bank, reaching $12 billion in assets for the first time, said yesterday it ended 2006 with record earnings of $198.5 million.

The state's largest bank in terms of assets capped the year with net income of $48.2 million in the fourth quarter, a gain of 2.4 percent from $47.1 million a year earlier.

"2006 represented the most profitable year in our 148-year history," said Don Horner, president and chief executive of First Hawaiian. "We experienced solid growth in all of our major business lines due to the outstanding performance of our employees who continued to successfully execute our relationship strategy."

First Hawaiian's full-year earnings marked a 15.5 percent increase over the $171.9 million it made in 2005.

Total assets rose 3.5 percent from $11.6 billion at the end of 2005. Loans and leases grew 6.2 percent to $6.4 billion from $6 billion. And deposits gained 4 percent to $8.9 billion from $8.6 billion.

Revenue, which combined net interest income and noninterest income, rose 11.4 percent to $585.2 million from $525.2 million.

Nonperforming assets as a percentage of total assets were 0.01 percent compared with 0.02 percent a year ago.

First Hawaiian, which has 57 branches in Hawaii, three on Guam and two on Saipan, is a subsidiary of Honolulu-based BancWest Corp., a financial holding company with $67.3 billion in assets. BancWest's parent is BNP Paribas SA of France.