First Hawaiian Bank President and CEO Bob Harrison called the first quarter "nothing special" but said he’d happily accept those results every time.

Loans increased 4.9 percent, deposits rose 7.7 percent and both categories reached all-time records.

"If I can have that loan and deposit growth each quarter, I’d be ecstatic," he said. "And good asset quality, too."

The state’s largest bank used that growth to post net income of $53.2 million in the January-March period, an increase of 1.1 percent from $52.6 million in the year-earlier quarter. First Hawaiian’s assets also set a record as they climbed 5.3 percent to $17.3 billion amid an improving state economy.

"We’re seeing those commercial real estate loans that we did a while ago to help construction not only in Kakaako, but elsewhere in the state starting to take hold," Harrison said Wednesday ahead of the bank’s scheduled earnings release on Friday. "We’re starting to see some growth in other markets as well residential and home equity lines."

Harrison said the bank’s strength is the diversity of its portfolio.

"We have a very balanced loan portfolio between residential, consumer, C&I (commercial and industrial) and commercial real estate," he said. "To me that’s one of the strengths we enjoy, and that is very reflective in the community because the community needs all of that."

Loans rose to a record $9.5 billion from $9.1 billion in the year-ago period while deposits climbed to a record $13.8 billion from $12.9 billion.

The bank’s asset quality also got better as the ratio of nonperforming assets loans delinquent for 90 days or more to total assets improved to 0.18 percent from 0.19 percent in the fourth quarter and from 0.27 percent in the first quarter of 2013. Nonperforming assets declined 31 percent to $31 million from $44.9 million in the year-earlier quarter.

"The market continues to get better," he said. "A lot of that number (nonperforming assets) for us is in the residential area. As we work with customers and the residential process takes a long time it’s consistently coming down."

First Hawaiian’s noninterest income, which includes service charges and fees, rose 7.7 percent to $51.8 million from $48.1 million. That included $5.1 million from the sale of 66,400 shares of MasterCard that was part of the stock the bank received for its membership stake when the card company went public in 2006.

But the bank’s net interest margin the spread between loans and deposits declined in the first quarter to 2.91 percent from 3.14 percent in the year-earlier period. Net interest income fell 4.1 percent to $107.5 million from $112.1 million.

First Hawaiian, which has 57 branches in Hawaii, three on Guam and two on Saipan, plans to open a new Waiakea branch this fall in the Prince Kuhio Plaza Shopping Center in Hilo at the site formerly occupied by Blockbuster Video.

The bank will close its Kamehameha branch on Waianuenue Avenue in Hilo when the new branch opens at the 6,000-square-foot facility, which is double the size of the existing 2,520-square-foot Kamehameha branch.

Harrison said First Hawaiian is committed to stand-alone branches rather than in-store branches that are part of rival Bank of Hawaii’s strategy for customer convenience.

"We’re very focused on our technology strategy and think that gives a lot of convenience to our customers," he said. "That’s why we just came out with a new Android app that can be used for Android tablets and the Kindle Fire, and we already have apps for Android phones, iPhones and the iPad."

First Hawaiian, a wholly owned subsidiary of French banking giant BNP Paribas, is not required to separately report it earnings, but does so voluntarily each quarter.