Trade journal ranks isle banks high among U.S. peers

The state’s two largest banks ranked high among the top institutions in the nation for financial performance in 2012, according to the ABA Banking Journal, a monthly national trade publication.

Bank of Hawaii Corp. was second among publicly traded banks and thrifts with at least $10 billion in assets, but slipped a notch in the rankings after holding on to the No. 1 spot the previous two years. Bankoh, which had $13.5 billion in assets as of March 31, has been annually ranked among the top 10 performing banks in the country since 2007.

First Hawaiian Bank’s holding company, Hono­lulu-based BancWest Corp., was ranked seventh among privately held and foreign-owned banks and thrifts with assets of $10 billion or more. BancWest, which dropped from its No. 2 ranking last year, is owned by French banking giant BNP Paribas. First Hawaiian is the state’s largest bank with $16.4 billion in assets as of the end of the first quarter.

The ABA Banking Journal, which published the results in its April edition, based its rankings on return on average equity, which measures how much profit a company generates with the money shareholders have invested.

Bank of Hawaii had a return on average equity of 16.23 percent. The average of the top 10 banks was 13.43 percent, while the average for all banks was 7.70 percent.

BancWest, the parent of San Francisco-based Bank of the West in addition to First Hawaiian, had a return on average equity of 6.16 percent. The ABA Banking Journal did not break out peer averages for the private and foreign-owned banks.

Bank of Hawaii also has been rated by Forbes magazine as one of the country’s top performers for the past four years, with No. 1 rankings for 2009 and 2010 and No. 2 rankings for 2011 and 2012. Foreign-owned BancWest wasn’t eligible for the Forbes list because the rankings focused on U.S.-owned banks.