First Hawaiian hits records for deposits and loans

It was a record third quarter for First Hawaiian Bank, but the head of the state’s largest financial institution is still being cautious about the economic recovery.

"There’s still a lot of concern about the international and the nation’s economy," CEO Bob Harrison said by phone from Tokyo where he was meeting with clients. "Hawaii is doing well, but we certainly don’t want to take it for granted because we’re a reflection of the visitor market that supports us. We have to keep monitoring that, and hopefully some of the geopolitical issues will calm down and the economies around the world can rebuild, because we really haven’t come back from the crisis. Clearly, Hawaii is doing well, and the U.S. is doing much better than the rest of the world, but it’s not a worldwide recovery yet."

First Hawaiian achieved record highs for its loans and deposits and topped $18 billion in assets for the first time. Loans rose 5.1 percent in the third quarter to a record $9.8 billion from $9.3 billion a year ago, and deposits jumped 11.9 percent to a record $14.7 billion from $13.1 billion.

As a result, First Hawaiian’s assets increased 8.2 percent to a record $18.1 billion from $16.7 billion.

"It was a very good quarter for us," Harrison said ahead of the earnings that were to be widely released Friday. "We’re seeing good growth in the loan portfolio, which certainly helped the results, and very strong deposit growth."

The continued low-interest rate environment has been a tale of two worlds for the bank.

"It helps in the sense it makes it more affordable for people to borrow," Harrison said. "Obviously, it’s a challenge for us because it reduces our net interest margin (the spread between loans and deposits), and that makes it more challenging for the bank’s results."

First Hawaiian’s net interest margin declined in the third quarter to 2.89 percent from 2.95 percent in the year-earlier period, but the bank’s net interest income rose 2.9 percent to $112.5 million from $109.3 million.

"The only way (the net interest margin and net interest income) go in opposite directions is loan growth volume," Harrison said. "Growth in the loan portfolio actually made up for the decline in interest margin."

Harrison said the bank’s loan growth was broad-based.

"What’s really been better than normal is the consumer side and the commercial real estate side," he said. "We’ve seen strong growth in both those areas — the commercial real estate in large part due to funding a lot of these construction loans for the projects you see around town."

Noninterest income, which includes service charges and fees, rose 5.5 percent to $52 million from $49.3 million.

"The biggest contributor was our credit card portfolio, especially our new priority destinations card," he said.

Nonperforming assets — loans overdue by 90 days or more — declined 3.9 percent to $31.9 million from $33.2 million and as a percentage of total assets improved to 0.18 percent from 0.20 percent.