First Hawaiian’s net up 9%

First Hawaiian Bank said yesterday that its first-quarter net income rose 9.2 percent as assets, loans and deposits all grew from the previous year and nonperforming assets remained low.

First-quarter net $56.2 million Year-earlier net $51.4 million

The state's largest bank in terms of assets said profits increased to $56.2 million from $51.4 million while total revenue grew 14.6 percent to $177.7 million from $155.1 million.

"Despite a slowing local economy and a challenged national economy, the bank continued to perform well overall," said Don Horner, president and chief executive of First Hawaiian.

Total assets grew 5.7 percent to $13 billion from $12.3 billion. Total loans and leases increased 8.6 percent to $6.8 billion from $6.3 billion. And total deposits edged up 1 percent to $9 billion from $8.9 billion.

Nonperforming assets as a percentage of total assets were 0.06 percent. They were at 0.07 percent at the end of the fourth quarter.

First Hawaiian, founded in 1858, has 58 branches in Hawaii, three on Guam and two on Saipan.

It is a sister bank of San Francisco-based Bank of the West and a subsidiary of the Honolulu-based holding company BancWest Corp., which had $74.8 billion in assets at the end of the first quarter.

BancWest is owned by French banking giant BNP Paribas SA.